


In Theory

by scifi (orphan_account)



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Pete's World, Post Doomsday, also clara is so damn stubborn in this but like what's new, also this is canon compliant !!, and jack is just jack, journalism major!clara, mathematics major!danny, ngl the romance comes secondary to the plot, nurse major!rory, the tenth doctor and twelfth doctor also make an appearance in here, torchwood!rose, writing major!amelia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 13:49:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 35,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21321211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/scifi
Summary: "In theory nothing is impossible, because if it was, I would have stopped listening as soon as you said time travelling police box"~[originally written between 2014-17]
Relationships: Amy Pond/Rory Williams, Clara Oswin Oswald/Danny Pink, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Kudos: 6





	1. Summary

**Author's Note:**

> hiya! this fic was originally written in between 2014-2017 over on wattpad (i'm called warpdrive over there) but i wanted to move a few fics from my teen years over to ao3 bc i guess i'm a little bit sentimental lmao
> 
> i've grown a lot as a writer since this was finished (and i grew a lot while it was a wip) but it still hold a special place in my heart. i always thought that clara and rose would've made really great friends if they ever met so that's how this fic was born lol
> 
> (an author's note taken straight from wattpad:)
> 
> this is a universe alteration of the parallel universe. I guess it is more of a UA than an AU just because it doesn't feel right calling this an AU. It is set in 2008 after Doomsday and prior to Turn Left (excluding the Rose cameos during series 4 (i think)) and yes, Clara & Danny will be slightly OOC in the fact that they aren't teachers but then again it is a UA(orAU??) so I guess it is acceptable haha.
> 
> (also this will fic will have slight tenrose undertones bc duh)

Ever since the Lyran invasion of 2007, Earth has finally come to the understanding that they are not alone in the Universe. They know that there is so much more out there but no one really understands just how much there actually is beyond the distant stars

Clara Oswald is a third year university student majoring in investigative journalism. When she is handed her major piece for the semester, Clara is literally stumped at what to do. Her passion was in criminal investigations, not scientific discovery and Clara thought all hope was lost at passing the semester until one day the perfect story comes to fruition.

Through the gradual progression of gossip, Miss Oswald heard of a girl who knew what it was like outside of the confines of their fragile planet. There was a girl who had once travelled the stars in a police box that is outstandingly bigger on the inside, with an alien from a constellation far away who could change his face and live longer than thought possible. Rumour had it that she fell in love with that alien; the perfect representation of star-crossed lovers, some would say.

But there was something peculiar that got Clara hooked:

She was from another universe.

She was_ impossible_.

It was the story that wouldn't just give Clara Oswald full marks at university but also be her breakthrough piece in the journalism industry. It was irresistible; a great story just waiting to be written down that would reap rewards once complete. Although there was a catch, because there's always a catch:

Clara hadn't the slightest idea of where the impossible girl is or what her name might be.

In theory, finding the subject of her story is near impossible but it is a good thing she doesn't believe in impossible because if she did, Clara would have given up as soon as she heard 'time travelling police box'.


	2. Prologue - A Universe Apart

Hands reached out to grip the sheets beside her only to find them cold and empty. Every time she woke up be it in the morning or in fear from night terrors, she would reach out beside her due to habit. She once had a warm body to share her bed with but those days were gone with no hope of returning.

It was dark, the moon was only a slither of silver breaking through loose clouds and the only illumination of her surroundings was from the streetlights outside. She was panting, eyes frantically searching for the one who was lost, the one who once shared her bed. Even though it was mid-winter and snow powdered the sidewalk, she was drenched in sweat and her skin prickled as her hot temperature met cool air. Nights like these were more common than they should be, waking up in the dead of night, lips poised to say his name yet no words came out. In the beginning, each night would be engulfed in tears and her voice would grow hoarse from lamenting her loss with screams or sobs or repetition of the name that wasn't really a name. Those nights had grown old and as winter took a firm hold over her bleak English land, her voice had become silent and not just at night; she refrained from idle conversation and even when pain spiked inside her, it was rare to hear even a mumble.

Nights like these reminded her that even though she was living, it wasn't life. The empty sheets beside her reminded her of the life once lived, the life so impossibly far away.

Once, a lifetime ago she was a naïve nineteen-year-old girl whose life revolved around the estate, her simple job at Henrik's and some good chips. Life was easy, normal and boring until she was swept off her feet by a mysterious man who told her to run. From that moment she stood by that man and never stopped running. Well, never stopped until she lost him. Now they were a universe apart, literally a universe apart and her life could never be mundane like it once had been.

Clenching the sheets that she had reached out to grab, she pulled them closer to her face so she could bury herself in the cold cotton. For the first night since late spring, tears fell from her eyes and dappled the sheets in her salty sorrows. Crying had been an emotion that had run dry early; for it to resurface on a night that wasn't particularly important brought confusion which leads to her onslaught of tears to quicken.

That night was one of many in which pain reasserted itself in the forms of tears and terrors that she had been free of for months.

Rose Tyler was a universe apart from the man she loved and there was absolutely nothing that could change that painful reality.

All she could do was grieve.


	3. Science Is Not Her Thing

Humid summer wind sent her hair into a flurry as she broke out into a jog. Today was the first day of the new semester and due to circumstances most irregular, she was most definitely late to class.

There was one thing Clara Oswald hated more than being late to class.

That was being late on the first day.

Clara was in her third year at university and by this stage those who knew her had come to terms with the fact that she was a control freak amongst many other things. Her meticulous persona was the reason that many classmates turned their heads out of surprise when she entered the lecture hall at five past nine.

For Clara, that was fifteen minutes way too late.

She settled herself into her usual spot, just slightly ajar of the centre seat. Nimble hands ran frantically through her chocolate brown hair in a vain attempt to smooth the frizz caused by her sprint to the lecture hall. Her big brown eyes darted around the room, afraid that she had missed something important but after assessing her surroundings, Clara found that their professor wasn't even in the same room as them.

Her discovery allowed Clara to sigh with relief and settle back in her chair; she hadn't missed a thing.

At ten past nine their professor finally showed up, arms piled sky high with loose pages and thick books. She was in her early forties with platinum blonde hair, black-rimmed glasses and attire that was way too tight to do any justice to her physique.

"Sorry I'm late," her thick Irish accent shone through her words as she decided not to give her students an actual reason for her tardiness. When she had dispatched her luggage upon her desk at the front of the room, she addressed her class again. "My name is Sonya O'Leary but do call me Miss since it uses up the least amount of energy. I'm not going to stuff around with long introductions or a perusal to this semester since by now you should have a pretty certain idea of what the hell you're doing here," she smiled momentarily before continuing. "I know you lot are proficient in the area of English - of course, you'd have to be if you were to become a journalist - so this term we'll be focusing of the academic polar opposite of English. Anyone care to take a guess?"

The room stayed silent for a few long moments until a guy near the back raised his hand sheepishly.

"Yes?"

"Physical Exercise?" he gave it his best shot and several classmates snickered.

O'Leary on the other hand just rolled her eyes and continued, "_Science_!"

Several groans rippled among the people around her but Clara stayed silent, letting the professor explain it completely before she expressed her views.

"Ever since the Lyran's invaded us last year the astronomical side of things have boomed, scientific discovery is the highest it has ever been. Engineers at this very moment are creating apparatuses beyond your imagination, Biologists are learning more and more about our body every day. Science may be unappealing for us who are more creatively inclined but there is no denying that science contains amazing things," O'Leary paused, allowing her to observe the faces of her students. Smirking at those who looked unamused as well as those who looked enthralled. "This term your major work is to choose a scientific discovery and investigate it, ten thousand words minimum. In science there are no limits, it is such a diverse genre which makes your job both harder and easier."

"How long will we have on this?" someone in the front queried.

"Don't fret, you'll have until the winter break," turning to her pile of papers, she grabbed a handful, "Specifics of this assessment are on the paper, any questions can be answered after the class."

She proceeded to hand them out and with a sigh finally escaping her, Clara Oswald sunk back in her chair and closed her eyes as, inside her, turmoil rose up.

— • —

"I hate science!" was the first thing Clara announced upon returning to her dorm. Her roommate was sitting on the floor, paper spread out everywhere and a half-eaten pizza beside her. Her head snapped up at Clara's dramatic entrance and she ran a hand through her thick flaming ginger hair before frowning.

"What happened?" Amelia Pond asked her, tone completely unamused. She was Scottish and her accent was the type that made any word sound sexy, disregarding the fact that already her hair was to die for and that her legs looked great when paired up with a miniskirt and high heels. She was the type of person that you wouldn't want to stand next to at a party and she also happened to be Clara Oswald's closest friend.

Handing her assessment paper to her roommate, Clara landed herself on her bed belly up, "I hate science."

"It isn't too bad. I spent all last year doing Science Fiction and it really _isn't_ that bad," Amelia tried to make her feel better. Like Clara, she had a knack for words but unlike Clara she was an author. Amelia liked to create imaginary worlds and imaginary people and put them together on blank pages to tell stories that before were untold. Clara, on the other hand, liked to discover the truth of the already existing and tell the world about it. She was non-fiction and Amelia was fiction and that fact was the reason why three years after first meeting, the two were best friends.

"Science Fiction is different," Clara whined, "you can make this stuff up but you _can't_ do that with this."

"You seem to have a pretty broad range to choose from, can't be that hard," Amelia read through the assessment page. "You'll work something out."

"Thanks," Clara muttered sarcastically. She really didn't believe that she could pull off an investigation in approximately four months. She hardly knew how to log onto twitter, let alone differentiate a comet from an asteroid. Science wasn't her forte and even though she wasn't the one actually doing the science, Clara felt that having to put pen to paper and write about the topic was bad enough.

"Listen, I'll help you find a topic if you don't want to have to google some major science stuff," Amelia shuffled herself so she was beside Clara's bed, hands gently prodding her brunette friend in an effort to cheer her up. "I have a few friends who are total nerds, maybe one of them might have the perfect story for you, yeah?"

"Yeah," Clara nodded, although not convinced about the whole science thing, she still had the tiniest slither of hope that she could actually pass her journalism class with the help of dearest Amelia Pond.


	4. Danny Pink & The Constellation Kasterborous

University was a whole different world after dark.

It was even more different the further they went from the English department.

Amelia had dragged Clara out of their dorm in the hushed hour of 1AM on a Wednesday morning. Neither had classes until after lunch but Clara had wanted to stay in her bed and marathon the _Lord of the Rings_ trilogy. Of course, she had barely got ten minutes into the first film when her lively roommate had more or less dragged her out of bed.

A week had passed since classes had resumed and Clara Oswald was still no closer to a topic for her Journalism assessment. She had spent the week searching the internet for fantastic discoveries or theories yet to be confirmed yet none stuck to her (let alone make sense to her totally not scientific brain).

In the cool air of the late summer night – or very early morning depending on your preference – Clara; still wearing her pyjamas and Amelia; definitely not wearing pyjamas, came to a pause outside a building Clara had never set foot in.

"A building dedicated to _Maths_?!" wide-eyed, Clara asked with disbelief.

"The nerds say the same about the English block," Amelia shrugged. "Now let me explain something before we go in: they're more scared of you then you are of them."

"You're acting as if they're spiders," Clara raised an eyebrow and Amelia grinned.

"I'm being serious C, they just stare at you and don't move. Well, not all of them but most of them," tugging Clara by the arm, Amelia pulled her towards the entrance to the building.

Even though classes had finished hours ago and the sun was only a handful of hours away from rising, many windows in the Mathematics building were still illuminated; most likely from students burning the midnight oil. When they walked into the building the two girls were welcomed with walls lined with equations, posters filled with squiggles that meant nothing to them and jokes that they couldn't laugh at.

"What's Schrödinger's Cat?" Clara asked her ginger friend as they walked past a pinboard dedicated to jokes about the topic.

"Please don't ask stupid questions," Amelia whispered between clenched teeth, "once you get them on a topic like that they won't stop talking until you fall asleep – even then they probably won't stop."

"So, Amelia, who are you even taking me to see?"

"Danny Pink," Amelia watched as Clara struggled to keep a straight face when she said his last name. "He's a good bloke, majoring in mathematics and is self-conscious about his last name so _please don't_ laugh."

"What do Math majors even do? Recite their timetables all day?" Clara asked with mild sarcasm.

"C," Amelia chuckled, "that's like saying we spend all day reciting the alphabet."

Clara wanted to continue but stopped herself when she heard noises coming from down the hall. She didn't know what to expect but what seemed to be gun noises was definitely not what she had in mind.

Amelia tugged Clara down the hallway and into what seemed to be a hybrid between a laboratory and a lounge room. Whiteboards covered in incomprehensible formulas, computer screens littered with thesis, desks with numerous papers and various gadgets and gizmos filled one side of the room. On the other was a projector that was currently showing what seemed to be a video game and in front of it was a lounge in which several guys sat on; from them came grunts, whines and cheers whenever someone in the video game was shot. Surrounding the lounge were takeout containers that looked several days old and science fiction memorabilia; some of it Clara proudly knew but there were many posters on the walls that left her clueless.

The guys immersed in gaming didn't notice the two girls come in; Amelia gave Clara a wry smile before announcing in the sultriest voice she could muster, "Hey boys."

Much to Clara's amusement, none of them even gave them a moments notice.

Sighing, Amy ruffled her hair and placed a hand on her hip before placing two fingers in her mouth and producing an ear-piercing wolf whistle.

Now that got their attention.

They all turned around and when they saw that their were breathing the same air that they were, three of them froze and the other two looked slightly uncomfortable.

Of course, Clara didn't blame them. Beside her was Amelia Pond, dressed in a tight-fitting and just a bit too short red dress that she rocked perfectly. Of course, Clara expected that she also made them uncomfortable; although she wasn't dressed in anything sexy, her flannelette polka dot pants and singlet top would probably make the guys in the room nervous. And by the looks of it, her sleepwear did just that.

"_Oh come on_," Amelia sighed, "Thought you'd be used to a Scottish bombshell crashing your late-night Halo games."

None of them responded and Clara quirked a brow, "You do this often?" she whispered.

"They're actually not that bad once you get them talking. They just have a habit of staring since we're probably the only females they'll see all week," Amelia shrugged, telling Clara with a grin.

"What you doing here?" one of the guys asked after several elongated moments passed by.

"I told you that I'll bring my science clueless roommate to see you one night and, well, here she is," Amelia pointed to Clara who waved timidly, cheeks turning red when all five guys trained their eyes on her.

The guy who spoke seemed to be the least afraid of the opposite gender and at first glance, Clara would never have guessed that he was mathematically minded. He had a buzz cut, dark skin and for someone who spends his downtime playing Halo in the maths department, he was pretty well built.

"Clara Oswald," he gave her a tight smile as if he was trying to stop himself from laughing at her total lack of a scientific brain.

"Hello!" Clara grinned before laughing a little too nervously. She put down her nerves to the four guys on the lounge (two were slack-jawed).

"So Danny, are you free to talk about _the thing_ or are you too caught up in your _very_ important video game?" Amelia rapped her fingers on her waist; a definite signal that if he didn't do what she wanted then he was a goner.

Feigning defeat, Danny simply told his Halo counterparts, "Sorry boys," before prying himself away from Chinese takeaway, cans of cola and his gaming buddies.

Nodding for the girls to follow, he led Clara and Amelia to one of the far corners of the room, which had been set up like an open-air office. Fancy equations, as well as scribbled notes, covered an otherwise clean white desk and on the wall behind them was another Schrödinger's Cat poster.

"Um, Danny, what's with Schrödinger's Cat?" Clara cautiously asked which earned her a shut-up glare from Amelia.

Danny was about to ramble off the more technical explanation of the theory but stopped himself, instead responding simply with, "the cat's both dead and alive." He gave Clara a warning glance, to stop her from asking just how the heck the cat can be simultaneously alive and dead. They had come to discuss more important matters instead of simple physics theories.

"So, come on mister," Amy settled herself on one of four chairs situated around the desk, "what's the discovery that will get dear Clara the A plus?"

Danny shuffled around with the papers on his desk until he pulled a page of notes from the bottom, "Do either of you know the multiverse theory?"

He was answered with a pair of blank stares.

"Okay," Danny sighed, closing his eyes for a moment in an effort to dumb down his brain for the more literacy inclined. "So you do know about the universe, right?"

"We're not stupid," Clara pointed out but shut her mouth when Danny raised his brows in disbelief.

"Just imagine that our universe is a bubble. It most definitely isn't a bubble, but right now it is. When you take a bubble bath there are thousands of bubbles next to each other and even though that was probably the most scientifically inaccurate thing I just said, imagine the multiverse to be that. Now imagine that there is a way to get from one bubble to the next, a microscopic hole connecting two bubbles–"

"Danny, um you lost me at bubble bath," Amelia admitted and beside her, Clara nodded her head in agreement.

Stifling a sigh, Danny pushed the notepaper towards them, "Clara, what if I told you that right now, in the UK, there is a girl from a different universe?"

"You're not being serious? Right? That's something out of a science fiction show, you're just pulling my leg," she grabbed the notes and skimmed them, they were dot points on the topic. She got about three words in before having absolutely no idea what the jargon meant.

"You wanted a story and I found something spectacular, if you think it's too farfetched I can give you another topic about Evolutionary Development and the processes of genetically modifying the human genome," Danny shrugged and started to rummage through another pile of papers.

"No, wait a second! What is a Torchwood? I'll actually consider this topic if you only explained it. You don't have to treat me like a five-year-old, talk to me as if I'm in a grade six science class," Clara stopped Danny and pointed to one of the first words on the paper.

Smirking, Danny pinched the paper out of Clara's hands and began his explanations again, this time he's less eager to get right into the thick of it, "Torchwood is a company, it's where she works."

"Who does?"

"The impossible girl."

Clara repeated that line under her breath, liking the way it sounded; the perfect subtitle.

Danny continued, "Like I was saying before, there is a theory that there are multiple universes and she could prove that it isn't just theory but fact. Not much is known about her and what little I have discovered is mostly through Chinese whispers and hearsay but I think I've got most of it more or less correct. There is this girl somewhere in the UK who used to travel the stars in a time travelling police box–"

"Seriously?" Amelia butted in.

"I'm just repeating what I heard!" Danny reminded her. "Basically she travelled in the police box that was bigger on the inside with an alien from the constellation Kasterborous," he paused, turning himself to his computer where he brought up map of the Milky Way. "Now, we've scoured our database but that constellation doesn't exist, probably because of the next detail. Sources say that she came from a crack between universes and I don't know about you two but I'm genuinely curious to discover if she is fact or fiction."

The three remained silent for a few moments before Clara cracked a smile, "thank you Danny, I think you've just saved my day."

Next to her, Amelia let out a squeak of excitement and Danny looked at her as if she was not the slightest bit serious.

"I'll take this," Clara grabbed the notepaper from Danny.

Danny asked, "You're actually going to consider this?"

"It sounds a lot more interesting than your genome backup plan," she shrugged, "and anyway, in theory nothing is impossible because if it was I would have stopped listening as soon as you said _time travelling police box._"


	5. A Peculiar Predicament

For an entire fortnight, Clara had become immersed in the hearsay of the impossible girl. She hadn't found much out about her but during her two weeks of foraging, she did discover rumours that got Clara even more hooked to the girl from the parallel world.

There was the rumour that the girl had fallen in love with the alien from Kasterborous and that she hadn't wound up in this universe by choice. There was a rumour that she had been torn from him and was in dire need to get back to their blue box that was outstandingly bigger on the inside – sources had informed Clara that the box had a name; the TARDIS.

Clara had not been given just a science topic on the speculative side of things but also a love story – if the latter was true – which meant that it would be a hit if published.

She hadn't just been dished the beginnings of her A-plus assignment, if executed correctly, written perfectly and shown to the right people, Clara had the smallest possibility that she could become a fully-fledged journalist before the year was through.

Except for the only way for any of those far-flung dreams to come even close to fulfilment, Clara had to somehow find her subject and talk to her in person.

And that was easier said than done.

In the fortnight just passed, Clara – along with the help of Amelia and Danny – had scoured the internet and country for what Torchwood really was. Most of the information they had gathered was vague or corrupted and more times than not their sources were more pseudo than legitimate. It was as if they were scouring a haystack for a needle five nanometres long.

Clara tucked stray strands of brunette hair behind her ears and her teeth chewed subtly on chapped lips. Large brown eyes darted as she took in her surroundings, only pausing when her sight fell upon the ginger locks of Amelia off in the distance. For a day in which rain fell from the sky in a gentle mist and clothes to warm you up would be more appropriate, Amelia's short skirt and singlet stood out among trench coats and turtlenecks. She stuck out like a sore thumb but in the right way, causing a smile to pull at Clara's lips.

She had forfeited a day of lectures in favour of a trip to the west coast where vowels were not always needed and she had only been within Wales for all of three hours and already Clara regretted missing out on class.

She had been dragged along on a goose chase all in the name of research.

It had been Amelia's idea to take a field trip to the one place their subject would most likely be and because she had a knack of getting her own way, both Clara and Danny had been pried out of campus and forced to join her for an adventure and a day of collecting data and snooping in a town none of them knew much of.

"What do you think she's doing over there?" Danny asked from beside her. The two of them has been left huddling underneath an umbrella while Amelia broke free of their trio in favour of talking to the locals.

"Collecting primary data," Clara replied, snickering at her use of words.

Danny smirked, "You're getting good with the lingo."

"As long as you don't make me have to define the terms then we'll be sweet," Clara smiled up at him but her attention turned to Amelia, racing towards them with the rain turning her hair and clothes damp, with a content grin on her face.

"Project _Impossible Girl_ is a go!" in her hand was a piece of paper that she waved frantically in front of them.

"We are not naming it _Project Impossible Girl_," Clara sighed, "makes us sound like we came from a D grade crime show."

"I don't mind the name," Danny shrugged, giving Clara a nervous smile that was only returned with a frown.

"Look, we'll discuss the name later but right now we need to focus on this," Amelia shoved the paper beneath their noses. On it was words etched in blue letters cramped close together, describing what seemed to be directions.

"A pub?" Danny asked with risen brows.

"A special pub," Amelia corrected.

"Special?" Clara frowned, "seems like a dodgy Welsh pub to me."

Amelia rolled her eyes, "This dodgy but very special pub is where we will find your mystery girl."

"And how can you be so sure about that?" doubt dripped from Clara's question.

"Because that guy I was talking to in the rain knew who I was talking about. Turns out our mystery girl spends her spare time as a bar fly in this pub," Amelia shrugged, "wanna go check it out?"

Danny and Clara both gave each other a quick glance, their eyes shouted _no_ but their eyes weren't in control of their vocal cords so both could only sigh and reply half-heartedly "Sure, why not?"

Amelia didn't care if two-thirds of the trio were unenthusiastic; she grabbed them both by the arms and partially dragged Clara and Danny towards the pub that could hold all the answers.

• • •

Smoke choked the air and dim lights flickered as if they were on their last legs and Clara held a hand to her mouth in an effort to hold back the onslaught of coughing that would ensue if she inhaled much more of the smoke. Beside her, Amelia's lips quirked into a disappointed frown and Danny wore an expressionless mask which behind it he was probably telling himself about the regrets of saying yes to helping Amelia out.

They stood at the door and the few customers within the hazy pub watched them as if they were hawks and Clara was their prey. It was intimidating to see eyes awash with alcohol and dismay follow her every move; studying her like she was an experiment and they were scientists.

"Come one, let's grab a stool at the bar," Amelia nudged her brown-haired friend towards the bar and Clara had to pull her eyes away from their observers in order to move.

"Do you think she's here?" Clara asked a low whisper when they perched themselves on the cracked leather stools.

"Don't know for sure, it's hard to see with all this smoke," Amelia tapped her fingers on the sticky wood of the bar, smiling when the bartender approached them.

"Can I get you anything?" the bartender would have been close to Clara's age; she had blonde hair that was pulled up into a ponytail and brown eyes framed by mascara-laden lashes. Her accent stood out against distinct welsh brogue Clara has been listening to all day. She sounded like a Londoner, which was surprising since a dodgy pub tucked away in Cardiff would have been the last place she would have expected someone who wasn't a local. Then again, she _was_ sitting in the pub so that kind of deemed her statement void.

"I'll have a gin and tonic and these two will have an ale each," Amelia replied, ignoring Danny as he tried to explain that he didn't want a drink.

"I'll get them right away," the blonde smiled at her and Clara noticed that as she walked away, her tongue protruded between her teeth. It was a habit she once had during long nights spent studying but faded before she could keep it for good.

"There doesn't seem to be our mystery girl anywhere," Clara sighed, "all I see is drunken old guys and tattooed men shrouded by smoke."

"Maybe she didn't come tonight?" Danny suggested.

Amelia shook her head, "No, no, she has to be here. The man said so."

Danny's brows rose the slightest, "Who even was that guy, Amelia?"

"Someone who knew about what the hell I was talking about-"

"He was probably making it all up just for a laugh," Clara interjected, lips pursing together in a tight line.

"How do you know?" she asked.

Clara shot back, "How do you know what he said wasn't just a load of bullocks?"

"Your drinks," the bartender placed the gin and ales in front of them.

Amelia's cheeks became tinted red as she realised that she had dragged Clara and Danny on what seemed to be a goose chase. Facing the blonde behind the bar, Amelia apologised, "Sorry but I don't think we'll be staying, we have lectures in the morning."

With that Amelia, got up and walked towards the doors, leaving Danny and Clara sitting awkwardly at the bar; both their brown eyes locked on each other with confusion. Clara dug into her pocket and placed 10 quid on the bar counter and smiled timidly at the blonde, "Sorry about that, enjoy your night!" She then got up and left and Danny quickly followed suit, smiling a farewell to the bartender who could only look at them with confusion as the three disappeared out onto the street.

"Amelia?" Clara called when the three of them were out on the street; she took in a deep breath, relishing the feeling of being able to breathe in crisp clean air.

"I should have known better than to put my trust into a random on the street. I should have known better than to come to Cardiff without any solid information of who we were looking for," Amelia ran a hand through her ginger hair before leaning against the brick wall that was the exterior of the pub.

"It's alright A," Clara walked up beside her, "We had just as much chance of finding her in there than we what we had this afternoon. You didn't do anything wrong besides making us breathe in the disgusting air."

Amelia smirked, "thanks C, although I feel bad that your research is still pretty sceptic at the moment."

"Do you think we'll actually find her or do you think she doesn't even exist?"

"I think our impossible girl is more like Schrödinger's cat. We don't know for sure whether she exists or not so, for now, she is simultaneously both. Although, I'd personally prefer her to be real," Clara explained.

Both Amelia and Danny cringed, "did you really try to use that bloody cat as an explanation?" Danny asked.

"Yes, yes I did," Clara affirmed. "Now I don't know about you two but I'm not ready to go back to London just yet. What about staying here the night?"

"We don't have any accommodation," Amelia pointed out the obvious.

"We are poor university students in a peculiar predicament," Clara smirked, "last time I checked, it's quiet season and hostels are pretty cheap."

"We could still make the last train back to Paddington," Danny pointed out, "Cardiff central isn't too far from here."

"What's the point in that? C'mon, I saw some signs for a hostel on the way here." Clara smiled, pushing her friends into an agreement. She wasn't going to give up on her impossible girl just yet, even if the impossible girl was impossibly hard to find.


	6. The Impossible Girl

"_Psst... you were looking for me, right? Psst."_

Clara practically jumped out of her chair.

Blonde hair met her line of sight followed by a pair of brown eyes staring curiously at her. "You were in the bar to find me, yeah?" a voice familiar to her ears asked.

Clara, Amy and Danny had found spare beds in a low-end hostel and while the others had headed to bed, Clara had stayed in the recreation room, reading through the vague evidence she had been collecting. She had become so immersed in her reading she had forgotten that she wasn't alone in the room, heralding shock when the blonde who observing her with an inquisitive gape, pulled her out of concentration.

Settling back in her seat, Clara blinked three times before focusing on the person beside her. "You're the girl from the bar?" she half stated and half asked, squinting a bit to make sure she was seeing the correct person.

"Yep that's me, what do you want?" she leant against the wall and raised her brows, impatient for an answer.

"Honestly, to go to sleep," Clara replied swiftly and the blonde girl shook her head, "I didn't realise how late it was."

"No, you were looking for me. That's the only reason you came to that god awful bar earlier," she moved from the wall and sat in the chair beside Clara.

"Unless you're from another universe then go away."

"Well guess what, I am. The name's Rose Tyler and I sure am curious to know why three university students came out to Cardiff just to meet me."

It was as if a piece of a puzzle clicked into place; she had finally found out the impossible girl's name. A smile beaming onto her lips, Clara asked, "How did you find us?"

"Not that hard to spot you when you're sitting right in front of a window I walk past every night on my way home," Rose shrugged. "Tell me a bit about yourself."

"Name's Clara Oswald, I'm a journalism major and my friends in there are Amelia and Danny, they're helping me out with my investigative assignment," Clara sped through her explanation, tucking her chestnut hair behind her ears; a shocker nervous habit she had for years. "Basically what I have to do is investigate a scientific discovery and you're it."

"How did you hear about me?" Rose asked, turning her face away from Clara to look out the window and up at the waxing moon half shrouded by a thin veil of clouds.

Clara let her eyes wander up to the moon hanging above them, "Danny collected a few things that were hearsay. Nothing more than rumours of a secret company called Torchwood and that you're associated with them. Most of the hearsay is patchy but he told me that there was an impossible girl from another universe came to us through a crack between our universes. She used to travel in a blue box with an alien from Kasterborous-"

"How do you know about that?" Rose tensed, snapping her gaze off the moon to stare at Clara. Her eyes were cold and hard; reflecting nothing, not even the dim light of the moon and stars or the soft lights of the rec room. "How could that gossip even get out?"

"Is any of it true?" Clara probed.

"Yeah, all of it. Although how it got out, I have no idea," Rose smirked. "What were you planning to do once you found your impossible girl?"

"In all honesty," Clara exhaled, "I have no idea. I honestly struggled to understand Danny's explanations of the multiverse theory so I doubted that this little bit of nerd circle gossip was going to prove to be true. I didn't even think about what I would do if I met you. Interview you probably?"

"Well, I have a feeling you're not up to interviewing me at two in the morning. Can we do this again maybe one day when your friends are awake too?" Rose stuck her tongue between her front teeth, a habit Clara noticed back in the bar earlier that night.

"Oh my stars!" she struggled to hold back a shamefully ecstatic grin, "You're being serious? You're allowing me to interview you, to investigate you, to _write_ a paper about you that _will _get published?"

Rose shrugged, "This Earth knows that there is more out there than them. I think they can handle a girl from another universe."

"Are you certain?"

"Well, if it ends up being too revealing my good pals back in Torchwood will obliterate your paper and give you something a bit less out of this world to hand in instead," Rose let out a slight chuckle and Clara followed suit.

When mirth fell into taciturnity, Clara enquired "Can I interview you soon? Like I need a few days to prepare, is that alright?"

Nodding, Rose responded, "I'll find you when you need me, Clara. Now, it's the dead of night and I need to get home, I need to be at Torchwood in a few hours."

"Can I ask just one more question?" Clara took her luck at prodding Rose once more while getting to her feet.

Standing up, the blonde shrugged, "Sure, why not."

Clara asked her question so innocently, not giving any thought at how such a question could unravel, "Is it true that you were in love with the alien?"

As soon as she said those words, the small smile that was on Rose's face vanished with a flinch and her eyes leapt up to look at the sky once more, avoiding the brunette's gaze. "Get some sleep, Clara Oswald," Rose told her in a small voice that made each world sound like a struggle to pronounce.

With that, she walked off, leaving Clara once again by herself in the rec room. She chewed on her bottom lip and let her mind linger on the last question. Rose hadn't responded to her query but by her brittle farewell, Clara knew that she hadn't just gotten lucky with finding her impossible girl that would guarantee an A at the end of the term. She had stumbled upon a girl who intrigued her, who had so many stories to tell, who was the result of a cataclysmic climax of literal star crossed lovers torn apart by the fabric of time and space.


	7. Cold Tea & Conspiracies

Just as rain pours from the sombre skies outside, Clara poured all the knowledge within the walls of the Library into clumsy piles around her. They had been back from Cardiff for three days yet Rose Tyler was still yet to make her reappearance. On the first day back, Clara had been entrapped in preparing enough stimuli to hold an in-depth interview. On the second day, classes had beckoned her attendance so her mind was kept busy with academia. On the third day, however, as rain thwarted the dismal world outside, Clara had no classes and more than enough time to question if her impossible girl would show her face again.

Amelia had left her to wallow in her own copious conspiracies regarding Rose Tyler's current whereabouts in favour of extended English literature. Clara had contemplated tucking herself into bed and binge-watching some much-needed TV but a knock on her door had stopped such a thing from happening.

Showing up at her dorm with a rain-sodden jacket, Danny Pink had whisked her down to the archaic and knowledge filled sandstone walls of the University's library.

They had cooped themselves into a corner and marked the velvet lounges as their own with a pandemonium of musk-scented, brittle paged books, internet pages printed upon mass amounts of paper and textbooks borrowed from the Physics department.

"We're not going to find anything in this chaos. We need Rose to show up and explain to me how all this wibbly wobbly space thing works," Clara tossed a book about temporal physics onto the ground and fell back into the lounge.

"Wibbly wobbly?" Danny chuckled, not taking his eyes off a paper on multiverse theories.

"Well, that's what it feels like!" Clara exhaled, "I'm just a journalism student Danny, all this science and maths doesn't make sense to a literary mind. If I have to read one more paragraph on theories that all contradict each other I swear, I'll scream. I'll scream and chuck a tantrum so loud that it will make everyone in this goddamn library hate me for interrupting their study."

Sighing, Danny nodded and broke his eyes off the paper, "Okay Clara, I get that you don't understand any of this but you can't put all your faith into Rose Tyler. Didn't she tell you that she'd find you when you need her? Well she isn't here is she? I know you need her but until she shows up can't you just touch up on some science while you wait for her to reappear?"

Clara scrunched her brows together and studied Danny Pink. His tone gave off irritation although his deep brown eyes hinted at worry. A worry that most likely stemmed from the fact that it was he that introduced her to the convoluted mystery of the girl from a different universe entirely. "Look, Danny, we've been at the books for over two hours and all I have picked up on is that a bunch of scientists with fancy letters after their names tend to contradict and argue with each other in the form of research papers."

"Alright," Danny smirked, "I got to admit that some of these papers read as if they are trying to rub the superiority of their theory in everyone's faces. Do you want to take a break?" He paused to assess his surroundings, "We could leave this chaotic pile here, and no one would even touch it. The only people in this corner are those Arts major stoners to our right."

Clara followed his eyes to see three try hard hippies nestled amongst a fort of bean bags drawing patterns on each other's arm's. "You're right," Clara smirked, "I could kill for a chamomile tea."

"Well then, miss Oswald, care to accompany me out into miserable rain?"

• • •

The campus coffeehouse was filled to the brim with students wishing to warm up with caffeinated beverages and escape the onslaught of chilling rain that unremittingly assaulted London on a Friday afternoon. Danny and Clara had whisked up a booth at the back of the store, cloistered up behind the mingling crowd that had taken up residence amongst the comforting scent of coffee beans and boisterous babble.

They had gotten halfway through their chamomile tea, latte and two slices of caramel cheesecake when their booth became occupied with a third uninvited presence.

Clara lifted her brows at the man who had taken the spare seat next to her, "I'm sorry but you can't sit there."

An American accent responded, "I think I can Clara Oswald. Now I have to say, the black forest cake here is way better than the cheesecake. A lot more decadent to the palate-"

Clara cut in, "Who are you?"

"Who do you want me to be?" the man winked and Clara couldn't help but blush.

From across the table, Danny interrupted, "I swear I've seen you before, in Cardiff I swear you were the guy Amelia was talking to."

"The hot Scott?"

"Oh my goodness, it is too," Clara's brown eyes trained in on the stranger, "Now who are you and why are you sitting next to me?"

The man let out a histrionic sigh as if to signal forfeit, "My name is Captain Jack Harkness but most people just settle with Jack. Rose told me about what you want, what you want to know but you see, all this alien stuff is still very secretive and I just can't let some random journalism major in on some of the biggest secrets Torchwood has to offer."

"What _is _Torchwood?" Clara tilted her head slightly and cursed herself silently about not having anything to record her encounter with Jack on.

"I think the pretty maths major opposite of us has told you some things already," Jack looked across the table and winked at Danny who just sat there, observing.

"Well, what I picked up from all of it was that you are a top-secret organisation that deals with all the non-Earth stuff," Clara smirked slightly, "But I guess you're not very secretive if Danny knows about you lot."

"How do you know we didn't plant the gossip for you guys to find, that we _wanted_ you to search for us?" Harkness raised a teasing brow and reciprocated her smirk.

"What?" was all Clara could compile as a response.

"He's just messing with us Clara," Danny responded in what could almost be interpreted as a growl.

"How do you know Mr Pink?" Jack countered before returning to Clara's attention. "Now I know you want to interview Rose Tyler but it can't be done in a place as public as this. Come back to Cardiff with me, to Torchwood HQ and you can ask her all the questions that your heart desires."

"Why do I have to go all the way back to Cardiff? I so much study to catch up on for all my other subjects not to mention my essay that's due for my history elective tomorrow!" Clara frowned, shaking her head as if she was defeated.

"Don't worry Oswald, it's already sorted out. A few days on a field trip has been worked neatly into your busy academic schedule," shamelessly, Jack reached over to pick a piece of cheesecake off Clara's plate and popped it into his mouth. "Yeah, I'm sticking to my statement that black forest is better."

"What about Danny and Amelia? Can they come to Cardiff?"

Harkness chuckled, "Sorry sweetheart, the invitation didn't have a _bring a friend_ policy although I wouldn't mind seeing your redheaded roommate sometime soon."

For a mere moment, Clara exchanged glances with Danny and she could tell in an instant that he was weary although at that point in time she didn't have much choice. Clara Oswald was a mix of clueless and confused when it came to her investigation. After she had talked to Rose a few nights ago, she expected the rest of the investigation to be somewhat resemblant of smooth sailing although instead, the tides had taken her down murky waters. She was interwoven between a girl swept through a tear in the fabric of time and space, a lucrative company who undoubtedly wanted to micromanage the entire predicament and a word-heavy assessment that she wanted to receive nothing but the best grade in.

"Well then, when do we leave?" Clara questioned.

Jack began to shuffle out of the booth, "right now if that's alright with you."

"Can I at least finish my tea?"

Getting out of the booth, Jack shook his head, "Your tea's already cold."

Sighing, Clara looked down at her beverage; the pale milky tea was undoubtedly sitting in the temperature range between cool and lukewarm. It was a temperature that when consumed, created the sensation of hairs standing up on the back of one's neck or suppression of voluntary shivers. She looked over to Danny and sent him an apologetic half-smile "Sorry about this, hope you can get our chaotic mess in the library back to the way it was."

"Don't worry about it Clara. You gotta do what you gotta do, I'll let Amelia know about you little trip once she gets out of class," Danny shrugged like it was no big deal even though the both of them knew that organising the disaster zone that they left in the library was by itself, a bigger deal than they made it out to be.

"Thank you, and thanks for the cake," she leant across the table to gently squeeze his hand as a friendly thankful gesture before getting up to join Jack.

"Come on Oswald, nobody enjoys peak hour from London to Cardiff but we better head off if we are going to make it in time." Jack nodded for her to follow him through the masses of caffeine enthusiasts out into the gloom of the saturated world outside.

"In time for what?"

Turning around to give her a wink, Jack Harkness responded, "dinner."


	8. His Name Was The Doctor

The rain continued to flee from the thick clouds above the Cardiff skyline, dappling Clara's red coat as she hurried behind Jack towards shelter, he had led her to one of many brick houses that lined the city street. With a leap, he dodged a growing puddle and made it up to the front door. Twice, Jack knocked, letting the sound resonate into the last moments of daylight before waiting for a response. Clara quickly joined him on the front step, pulling her coat close to her body to shy away the shivers that tempted to run down her spine. The seconds after the second knock vanished from her ears to when the door creaked open felt endless as only the hum of rain comforted her ears.

When the door cracked open, Jack unravelled his pursed lips into a grin, "Nice of you to answer, miss Tyler."

"What do you want Jack, it's my day off," Rose Tyler's voice sounded from the other side of the door.

"I brought a friend who you promised to let interview you. It was quite rude that you didn't even give her a phone number or email," Jack pulled Clara close to him so Rose was able to see the second visitor through her small opening in the door.

"I'm not your friend," Clara warned Jack.

She was responded with a chuckle, "Nonsense sweet cheeks, we're besties."

Rolling her eyes, Clara shook her head before focusing in on the mysterious blonde whose identity had eluded her until only three days ago, "Nice to see you again, Rose."

"You too, Clara Oswald," Rose gave her a small smile and edged her door open a bit further. "Why did you bring her here? You know I don't like visitors."

"Oh lighten up darling, it's been almost a year since you showed up, you gotta allow more people other than me and occasionally your family to keep you company," Jack sighed before adding, "and anyway, Tosh was doing something to the computers back at base so she wouldn't let me loiter there."

Rose pursed her lips, hazel eyes trained in on Jack as she considered her options. After a few moments and a glance out towards the haze of rain in the twilight sky, Rose let her door swing open, "You can come on in."

Jack took that as an opportunity to pull Rose into an unwarranted hug, "You wouldn't happen to have any dinner plans?"

She shrugged the man off, "No, but if you want something your gonna have to be the cook."

'Sure thing!" Jack sidestepped the blonde and walked off towards what was most likely the kitchen, leaving Clara standing awkwardly at the doorframe, her wide brown eyes observing what little of the house she could see.

"Come on," Rose nodded her head in an invitation, "want a cuppa?"

Slowly, Clara stepped into the house, "sure."

"Living room is just down there, I'll be with you in a second once I tame the wild Jack Harkness," a smirk played on Rose Tyler's lips before she vanished to the kitchen, leaving Clara to find her way to the living room. The house was kept tidy, with minimal ornamentation. It was bare-bones, belonging to someone who spent little time within its confines.

Clara settled herself on a cosy cream sofa; her fingers ran over the cover of literary texts about the universe, which were nestled, between the latest issues of gossip magazines. A curious combination for an even more curious person.

"Here you go," Rose entered the living room, two steaming cups in her hands. "Jack's attempting to cook some fancy Italian dish, it's not too late to ring up and order take out instead."

Clara shrugged, "I don't mind, I'm rather curious to see how well he can cook."

Rose chewed on her bottom lip as if she was holding back a response that would most likely insult Jack. Instead of replying she placed the cups on the coffee table amongst the litter of books and magazines, "I was going to get in contact with you, I just wasn't ready to open up to a stranger."

"I don't mind Rose, honestly, I have until just before Christmas to hand it in and I am rather proficient in the art procrastination," Clara reached out to grab the cup of tea, nursing the warm beverage in her hands as she spoke.

Rose smiled just as a howl echoed from the kitchen. "I told you not to touch the hotplate while the light was orange!" Rose shouted, shaking her head as she placed herself on the couch beside Clara. "I may have swapped dimensions but I could never get free of Jack. Although, the one here's a bit worse of a cook than the first one I met."

"Does everyone have a duplicate? Like would there be another me where you came from?" Clara sipped her tea, her eyes curiously trained in on Rose as she began her questions.

"Yes and no. Like there aren't technically two of me in this universe since my counterpart is a dog called Rose. But in your case there just may be another Clara Oswald from where I came from, living a life as a student or you might even be a stripper," Rose paused to laugh. "Everything is touched by the Butterfly Effect. There are billions of people on this planet, let alone the rest of space. Everything we do, every choice we make alters time and space. Most times none of those decisions throws our life off course but sometimes we come to a point where all our minor actions prior end up with us becoming something entirely different to what we could have been. Which is why my counterpart in this universe is a dog named Rose."

"The Butterfly Effect?" Clara furrowed her brows, "my friend Danny mentioned it once but I never took notice."

Rose leant over to the coffee table and pulled out a book, opening it up to several pages in before handing it over to Clara, "It's just one of many theories that time and space revolve around. I gotta admit, I was absolutely clueless about all of them until I started travelling. It teaches you a lot, to see it happen first hand.

Clara's eyes flicked down to the book. It was open up to a page describing the theory:

** _The Butterfly Effect_ ** _: it is the sensitive dependence on the initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a latter state. – Edward Lorenz._

_Derived from the metaphorical example of a hurricane, wherein the details such as the exact time of formation and exact path taken are influenced by minor perturbations such as the flapping of the wings of a distant butterfly several weeks earlier._

"I could see how other me chose the stripping life," Clara smirked, "I hope she's doing good."

Rose sipped her tea, "All these theory's and relative effects of the fabric of time and space don't explain to me how I could possibly get back. It's been almost a year and I've gotten nowhere."

"You want get back that badly, huh? Is your family still there?" Clara watched Rose's expressions, hoping they were aid in working out the mysterious girl although her face remained neutral.

"Mum came over too, we're presumed dead back home. Even so, I just want to get back and break through the barriers that hold each dimension apart. If I could only make contact with the Doctor, even just for a few more moments. He would know what to do, he must have a solution somewhere in that miraculous mind of his."

"The Doctor?" Clara asked, "That's your alien friend, right?"

Rose's expression finally faltered as her eyes moved to observe the world outside that was now completely within night's veil. "Yeah, that's him."

"What was his name, if you don't mind me asking," Clara trod carefully with each word; she didn't want to break the brittle bridge she had just built with Rose.

"His name was the Doctor," Rose replied smoothly, "Just the Doctor, nothing more and nothing less." Clara went to ask a follow-up question but Rose beat her to it, "And no, he was a shocker when it came to doing anything medical. The poor thing almost fainted once when I cut my foot on oyster rocks, there was blood everywhere and he looked ready to faint."

A chuckled escaped Rose, and Clara let her lips part into a smile.

"Do you want to write any of this down?" Rose looked back over to the brunette student, noticing that she wasn't recording any of the conversation.

"Nah, tonight I just want to talk, tomorrow I'll write it all down," Clara put her tea on the coffee table so she could curl herself up on the lounge. "How long did you travel with the Doctor?"

Rose hesitated for a moment, her eyes darting around as she was trying to rack her mind for accurate dates, "Oh I don't know, a year maybe two? It's easy to lose track when you're hopping from one century to the next."

"And did you two?" Clara lightly asked, her words dropping off as soon as she saw Rose's eyes stop straight on her own, her hazel hues growing cold as the question touched her memories.

"Fettuccini Boscaiola!" Jack's voice rang into the living room, pulling the two girls out of the awkward silence they had fallen into. He entered the room with three bowls in his grasp, the third teetering questionably on his forearm. "Just to let you know Rose, I didn't burn down anything _this_ time and I promise to be on clean up duty. Because, well, you're better off not knowing."

With that, he placed two of the bowls in front of Rose and Clara, both saying thank you before eyeing out the questionable concoction. Jack found it fit to place himself between the two of them, his eyes eagerly watching as he waited for them to eat.

Gingerly, Rose tried the dish, chewing slowly a few times before her eyebrows shot up in surprise, "Not to shabby Jack, you actually made it edible for once."

Jack grinned, "You're making it seem like I'm a shocking cook!"

With that, Clara tried it herself and nodded, the pasta dish was actually half-decent.

Between mouthfuls, Jack informed Clara of his plans, "I'll take you to HQ after this, you'll get to meet the rest of team and I'll make sure you get a nice bed to sleep on. Tomorrow Rose will be back at work where I'm sure you can juice all the information out of her, of course, if you haven't started already."

Clara smiled, "Thanks Jack but I do have one question."

"Okay shoot."

"Can Amelia and Danny come out here too? I mean he's the brains of this assignment and I'm sure Amelia wouldn't mind a midterm escape."

Jack tossed his head from side to side a few times as if he was contemplating the idea. He then threw a look over to Rose who responded with a shrug.

"Well then Clara, I guess your friends are coming back but they have to find their own way here, the trains aren't exactly cheap and I already had to pay for you." Jack feigned a sigh of defeat.

"Well then," Clara smiled, "It looks like I'm finally starting to get somewhere with this blasted English assignment."


	9. Theoretical

"So this is a Lyran," Jack nodded towards the centre of the room, the sight of such caused several jaws to drop.

"No bloody way," Amelia was the first to respond, her mouth was wide with a grin while beside her, Clara and Danny still seemed frozen.

"Max here is our foreign consultant," Jack tried to hide his sniggers as he watched the visitors take in the fact that they were in the same room as an alien. The same species of alien that tried to take over the Earth not too long ago.

Max, the Lyran, was sitting in a seat; he gave a furry russet hand a wave to the three of them and grinned, letting his pointed fangs show, "By foreign he means intergalactic. And don't worry, I'm not like my brethren, I won't try to enslave you."

"We were actually the ones to enslave him," Rose shrugged, she was standing next to Clara, her eyes lit up as she watched the three university students observe Max in awe.

"Yeah," Jack continued, "When they attacked us we found Max trying to infiltrate Torchwood. He was our captive at first but that soon stopped when it turned out he wasn't too bad of a guy, even if those fangs make him look a bit sinister."

"Is your name actually Max?" Clara questioned, "I mean, no offence but that's a rather human name."

Max grinned, laughter rolled out of his lips half like a purr and half like a howl, "My name isn't really Max but for your primitive tongue it's much easier to say.

Beside her, Amelia wanted to counteract his sly remark but Clara leant against her fiery friend in an effort to refrain such thing. "It's great to meet you," Clara smiled, "I mean, I tried to stay away from all the fighting so I never really saw one of your kind up close."

"What does Max mean by intergalactic? I mean, I'm open to pretty much any theory but we haven't developed faster-than-light travel that would allow us to go anywhere," Danny directed his question to Jack Harkness.

Jack smirked, "You keep thinking that, buddy."

"We also have a few other members of the team, Tosh is somewhere in here tinkering with the computers but the others are up near Scotland way on a field trip," Rose continued with the introductions, "so all up there are seven members of Torchwood, saving the Earth from the big and scary."

"How come we don't know about you guys? Even during the invasion I had never heard of Torchwood," Amelia asked, her eyes roaming around the HQ, taking in all the flashing lights and monitors covered in words and diagrams foreign to the aspiring novelist.

"We enjoy being top secret," Jack shrugged, "It's better that way, with the public not knowing we exist. U.N.I.T get all the limelight but we're the ones who do all the hard yards. Now Clara and Danny, if you would follow me to my office that would be great."

"Since when did you have an office?" Rose furrowed her brows, her mind obviously trying to recall a moment that Jack had ever mentioned such a thing.

"Since now," Jack took a few steps towards a corridor before spinning around to address Amelia. "You can stay here and talk to Max, I don't like it getting crowded."

Amelia just rolled her eyes in response before taking a seat just out of arms reach from Max. She gave the alien a weary smile before turning to Clara, "have fun with your special talk, I'll just be here with Max swapping ginger secrets."

Clara let out a quick laugh before following Jack out of Torchwood's main area, Danny and Rose in tow. Jack brought them into a room lined with pots and pans and he clapped his hands together, "welcome to my office!"

Behind them, Rose let out a sigh, "this is the kitchen."

"Same thing," Jack ignored her, "please take a seat, and just push the cereal to the side to give us desk space."

Beside her, Danny raised an eyebrow with curiosity and Clara just shrugged in response, doing as Jack asked and claiming a seat that was placed around what she guessed was the dining table.

"Rose, you got the schematics?" Jack asked as he took a seat opposite Clara. Nodding, Rose pushed aside a half-eaten bowl of cereal and replaced it with a rolled-up sheet of paper.

"I hope you know how to explain it because even I still struggle with some of the wibbly wobbly terminologies," Rose chuckled before taking a seat between Danny and Jack.

Clearing his throat, Jack smoothed out the paper to reveal diagrams and writing all crafted in blue ink. "So we've told you a bit about what you've stumbled upon and we have reiterated something just to get it into your heads but now we're going to get a bit more science-y," Jack began. "It's okay Clara, I'll try not to get uber science-y. Before you is a rough diagram of just how the dimensions can exist. In space and time we are not in a set volume of area, it doesn't work like that. Right now in this room there is an infinite layer of dimensions all interwoven with each other. It's not like there is an end to this Universe and all you have to do is cut a hole in the barrier and _bam_ you're in the next adjacent universe. Every single choice, path and the slightest decision made by every living being in all the dimensions can create a splinter dimension. It doesn't matter if it is your decision to go out to eat Thai food or an Ood deciding to walk up the mountain instead of down. Every decision can create parallel universes. They are infinite, each one as complex as each other. There are an infinite amount of Clara's, Danny's and Rose Tyler's out there..."

Clara's eyes flitted from watching Jack's mouth to watching Danny's eyes scan the diagram. He was taking in each symbol and equation, all of which were more foreign to her than Max the Lyran. Even the lines and curves expressed in blue ink could have basically been in a foreign language to Clara Oswald. It wasn't until Danny's voice broke up Jack's lecture that Clara was drawn back to the crazy science that was being verbalised in the room.

"Time isn't interchangeable with the dimensions? Don't get me wrong, I'm just a mathematician, not a theoretical physicist but here," Danny's finger extended onto the schematic, landing on a formula that contained more symbols than her first-year thesis. "Here if I'm not mistaken it explains how even though space can contain an infinite amount of dimensions, time can not be interchanged between them?"

"You're smarter than you look," Jack smirked, "but yes, that is more or less correct. Time itself is confined within a singular universe although there are gaps between dimensions where time can leak and flow outside that constraint. That's how the Doctor's TARDIS travels, how simple time travel mechanisms can also travel. The time vortex lies outside the dimensions. Other variables on that rule are of course the tears in space and time, just like the one Rose came through. Time can escape and be transferred but most of the time it is constrained."

"So there is an infinite amount of dimensions and in-between them there are things like the time vortex?" Clara asked, "and sometimes things go wrong and the fabric of the universe can tear which allows you to slip through to an entirely different universe?"

"Exactly," Rose nodded, "It's okay if you don't particularly understand it. I mean, I just bluff my way through it mostly. The Doctor was a wiz at this type of stuff and used to throw some terms into the air that seemed like nonsense."

"Why do we need to know the ins and outs about the science side of things? I mean, it's great to know but I'm a journalism student, not an aspiring physicist," Clara asked.

"That's the thing," Jack winked, "we thought we would give you an easy way to bump up your paper by a few thousand words."

Clara rolled her eyes, "Thank you for being so thoughtful but my brain's going a little bit numb. I'm going to go out and join Amelia and Max, drop in on their ginger secrets. My decision is most definitely going to create _another_ dimension. Oh how enjoyable it is to know that every conscious and unconscious decision makes a new me."

Clara stood up, walking out of the kitchen, her words melding into giggles. Just as she left the room her ears picked up Rose's harsh whisper, "Nice one Jack, you're going to send her mad."

Rose was right, Clara was most definitely becoming crazy if all this once theoretical talk had become her reality. 


	10. Small Talks

"The fish looks good."

In her hands, Clara softly twirled her glass of red wine. She wasn't particularly fond of the potent taste but it seemed almost rude to ask for a glass of lemonade in such a fancy restaurant.

"I'll have the chicken," Clara replied non-fussed. Her eyes were trained on the sluggish movements of her merlot, ensuring she didn't capture the gaze of Danny Pink who was undoubtedly making holes in her skull with his stare.

Danny sighed, "Look, Clara, I know today was a lot to take in. Jack _did_ go pretty full-on but you can't let it consume your thoughts."

"A whole new dimension is going to be created because I chose the chicken for dinner," Clara pointed out.

"Don't think about it too much, the notion has always existed," across from her, Danny raised a hand in an effort to call over a waitress. "Let's just enjoy an overly fancy dinner at the best restaurant Jack could find us along the bay and choose the most expensive things because Jack's shouting."

Clara couldn't help but let a smile creep onto her face, "We'll bleed the guy dry if we go too crazy, this menu has food pricier than my rent!"

"A smile!" Danny chuckled, "That's more like it and you know what, I think I'll get the chicken too."

Clara's eyes became unstuck from her wine glass and she looked up at Danny Pink, this time a full smile surfaced. "It's too bad Amelia couldn't come, I could totally see her flirting her way out of tipping that waiter over there."

He shrugged in response, "I don't mind the alone time, and it gives me time to find out who you are, Clara Oswald."

They gorged in the lavish menu, paying particular attention to the deserts with names neither of them could pronounce. After a while, the wine Clara found unpleasant turned sweet, enriching her senses between each bite of ridiculously priced chocolate concoctions. The worry and information that had cloaked her mind with confusion and disbelief vanished, instead replaced with laughter and shared stories between them.

As their second bottle of wine let go of it's last ruby drop, Clara sat back in her chair, and trained her eyes onto Danny Pink. Her vision had gained a slight blur and the room around them had become more vibrant from the alcohol coursing through Clara's body but she was still surprisingly in control of herself. "Danny, what are you going to do after you finished your degree?"

He grinned at the question, "I want to become a teacher, purely mathematics, I don't want to be associated with the inferior subjects."

Clara rolled her eyes at the comment, "If you were my maths teacher then I might have passed the class."

"What about yourself Oswald, what are your plans once we graduate?"

"Criminal investigation," Clara shrugged. "Not forensics or anything but discovering cold cases and telling the world about them. It's a hard niche of journalism I want to get into but I've always been fond of crime."

"Have the past few weeks swayed your mind in any way?" Danny asked before raising his glass and finishing the last of his wine.

"You mean the crazy science? Or the realisation that we are nothing when compared to the bigger picture? As much as this has been interesting, my heart is unchanged. Once this semester is over, we're doing historical cases and I've already planned on doing Jack the Ripper." Clara shrugged, "no discovering wormholes for me anytime soon. I'd rather stay away from the things that hurt my mind."

Danny kept his eyes fixed on Clara for several moments before nodding. "Do you wish I didn't give you the lead for your assessment? I mean, you could have done a pretty sweet paper on Schrödinger's Cat or those crazy genetic scientists."

"Nah, I'm grateful that you gave me the vaguest information in hope of it being a massive story. You delivered the goods and even though I am completely baffled about what we've learnt, I'm glad I'm discovering it." Clara gave Danny a wink before pushing her chair back, "I think we consumed more money tonight than I do all month. I think we should head back to Torchwood before Jack regrets shouting us dinner."

"I think we've already done that," Danny chuckled. "We should guilt-trip him more often so we get more nights like these."

Clara shook her head in amusement before standing up, "Do you think he's human? I mean, there's something about him that just not quite right."

"Oh he's human for sure although I think there's something a bit different to him. Maybe you should ask Rose tomorrow?" Danny suggested.

"I'll add that too my already enormous list of questions to ask Rose," Clara extended her hand to assist Danny in getting up. "Come on, let's go add tonight to Jack Harkness' tab."

They left the restaurant and were welcomed with a crisp breeze outside. The nights had already begun to cool as summer's grasp slipped steadily in favour of fresh autumn weather. Clara hadn't dressed particularly well for the cold air that nipped at her exposed skin. Shivers raced down her body and gooseflesh coated her skin in an attempt to shy away from the icy breeze.

Clara's shivers caught Danny's attention and in an effort to help her warm-up, he wrapped an arm around her petite body, allowing his jacket to cover as much of her exposed skin as possible.

"I regret wearing a sleeveless dress," Clara stated, fighting the need to chatter her teeth.

"Well aren't you glad I wore a jacket," Danny responded. "Torchwood isn't far from here, I'll get you back before you turn into Clara the icicle.

"Thank you," with that, Clara leant into Danny and smiled as the shivers stopped bothering her. By the time they reached Torchwood, Clara was warmed up to the bones and glued to Danny. They walked in silence to their rooms which Jack had leant the three of them while they were on their small field trip to Cardiff.

"Tonight was good," Danny broke the silence they had fallen into, gently shaking himself free of Clara.

"Yeah," Clara agreed, "it helped bring my mind out of the fabric of space and back into the present."

"A good wine and a very good feed tends to do that," Danny chuckled. "But speaking of the fabric of space, I'll write out some of your paper. Just the introductory stuff about how it all works. I'll let you fully write it of course but I don't know, it might help if I compile all the nonsense into some sense."

"Thank you," Clara reached out and pulled Danny into a hug, "you don't know how much of a lifesaver you are right now. I wouldn't even have had the slightest clue where to start."

"It's no worries," Danny returned the hug, squeezing Clara tight before letting her go. "Have a good sleep and try not to dream of electric sheep."

Clara furrowed her brows, "Electric sheep?"

"Don't worry," Danny stepped back, walking towards his own room, "you're not nerdy enough yet to understand."


	11. Bad Wolf

"Is Jack human?"

The question brought a grin to Rose's lips. Her and Clara were in a park that roused emotions closer to sadness than it did relaxation. A small tangled kid's park sat timidly in the centre, with leafless trees and chairs tagged with a local gang's graffiti lining the metal playground that had long lost its shine. The two of them had found themselves on a dull grey bench speckled with fading lines of yellow spray paint; an effort to get outside while the day was still dry. Rain carefully hung above them, in thick clouds drooping from the sky above, yearning to let the contents of their saturated bellies fall freely onto the concrete jungle below. It wouldn't be long until a cloud slashed its belly open, turning Cardiff slick with rain that held an icy bite. Until such events occurred, Rose had taken Clara outside in an effort to sightsee but there wasn't much to see in Cardiff besides the 1000-year-old castle, so they opted for talking instead.

"Not in this universe," Rose responded. "Back from where I came from, Jack was human though, from the 51st century. Although I wouldn't consider him fully human since I did turn him into an immortal."

"How'd you manage that?" Clara asked. As the days went by, she became less and less shocked when people told her about bizarre things such as immortality.

"I looked into the heart of the TARDIS and went a bit overboard, if I say so myself," Rose chuckled. "I don't suggest trying that at home. The Jack in this universe is a Kronar. They look exactly like us meagre _Homo sapiens_ although their lifespan is incredible! Not as long as Jack the immortal but our Harkness will be running Torchwood long after there is no longer a humanity to look after."

Clara couldn't help but let her jaw drop a little, letting her awe show although not too much that she would look like a gaping fish. "It's crazy that there is so much out there that we don't know about. Like when the Lyran's invaded, half of London were certain it was a hoax. Everyone who so strongly believed that aliens existed were dumbstruck with the reality of all their conspiracies becoming reality. Imagine if humanity knew about everything, they wouldn't know what to do with themselves."

"They'd implode," Rose responded.

"Implode?"

She nodded, "Look what humanity did to the Lyran's once they understood what had happened. They almost blew apart the Earth because they were afraid of the unknown finally becoming known. If the layman that wander the streets and live their mundane circle of life found out about the dimensions, the space travel, the aliens that wander unseen and the wars fought in the star-speckled sky above their heads... Clara, they would cannibalise themselves with fear. Humanity might end a bit sooner than planned."

Clara frowned, "Then why are you letting me write about you, your story about being the impossible girl from another dimension? Wouldn't the confirmation of your existence send the World chewing at their own hide?"

"I plan on not being around by the time your paper becomes viral," Rose responded, her hazel eyes looking up at the churning sky as a slender hand reached up to her left ear, tucking a fine stand of blonde hair behind it.

"What do you mean?"

"You see, we've been testing a few things over here in Cardiff that the London branch wasn't particularly fond of," Rose hesitated as if she was assessing her situation, to confirm if it was safe to tell Clara. "Even though tears in the fabric of space and time are incredibly rare it isn't impossible to create your own. I have a team with me; we're working on this device called a _Dimension Cannon_. It's basically what its name says: a cannon able to blast a person into another universe. The Doctor once spent an entire afternoon telling me about the science behind such a devise. He told me that there once was a Time Lady who went crazy and used a Type-60 TARDIS as a dimension cannon for herself. Although I still don't understand much of all the physics behind it, I have a team who definitely understands how to make one."

"Are you telling me you have a way to get back?" Clara asked; her big brown eyes had grown even wider at the idea of Rose Tyler's saviour.

"I don't have it just yet," Rose corrected, "although we're close to starting to test it. We have a few complications when it comes to working out how to puncture the fabric of the Universe in just the right way so I can get back home. It's like trying to effectively push a basketball through a hole the size of a bullet."

"You just need to find a big ass bullet," Clara smirked and was responded with Rose's laughter.

When Rose quietened, her eyes met with Clara's and her upturned lips fell into a more neutral expression, "I was talking to Amelia this morning, she said you were going back to London today? Why do you gotta leave so soon? I was starting to enjoy having you around, there's just something about you that intrigues me. It's probably that you're the first person my age that I've gotten along with in a while."

"How old is Jack?"

"Oh he's just reached three thousand, barely an adult for the Kronar," Rose shrugged, "but Clara, do you really have to go back? If you stayed a few more days you could come out and see an Iranzi meteor landing with us down in Cornwall! They contain Iranzi bomb technology so every time they land, Jack makes us race out to grab them before all the pesky human scientists get their clueless hands on an interstellar bomb. It wouldn't be that amusing if someone hit the detonate switch and blew a Britain sized hole into the planet."

Clara pursed her lips together, "That sounds absolutely exhilarating but Danny, Amelia and I are missing way too many classes. One of my lecturers has scheduled a check up on my progress this week so I got to get back so I can finally start my paper."

"Do you think you have enough information to start, I mean we barely scratched the surface..."

"Rose, it's the roughest of drafts. I'll get O'Leary's feedback and continue on from there," Clara assured, "I still don't have the clearest idea where my story is heading after the first introductory science mumbo jumbo but don't worry, if I need more of the _Impossible Girl_, expect me to show up on your doorstep."

"Did Jack tell you about my request?" Rose asked, her head tilting slightly out of curiosity.

"No, what was it?"

"Don't call me Rose Tyler in your paper. Dad's kind of a big thing here, if you've heard the name Pete Tyler before than yeah, that's my dad," Rose waited for a moment to let Clara respond but she stayed silent beside her. "You can name me anything else honestly, although I have rather a fondness for the name _Bad Wolf_. It's what I was called back when I made the other Jack immortal. I was thinking that it could kind of be my pseudonym for your paper, kind of like what superheroes do?"

"Bad Wolf," Clara said the two words slowly as if she was testing how the felt rolling off her tongue and into the air. "Bad Wolf," Clara repeated, smiling. "I rather like the sound of that."

"It sounds more fierce than just plain old Rose Tyler," Rose shrugged.

"Oh hang on a minute, who said Rose Tyler was anything but fierce?" Clara replied back.

Rose rolled her eyes, "We better get going before we get drenched." As she said those words, the heavy clouds above ripped open their churning bellies; assaulting the bleak day with fattened drops of chilly rain, causing the bleak park they were in to become vacant as the graffiti coated seats became slick and pavement blemishes became puddles.

Clara Oswald and Rose Tyler were quick on their feet although the extra exertion was useless as their clothes became heavy and their hair stuck to their skin in limp strands. "Can I talk about the dimension cannon in my paper?" Clara asked as they made a beeline for cover.

Rose nodded, "Of course but you'll have to see it in person before you can talk about it."

"Is that an invitation to see Torchwood again?" Clara smiled; her voice had become raised, fighting to be heard over the torrential downpour that fell from above their heads.

"Keep your calendar open in October," Rose winked although that gesture was lost amongst the rain.

They reached the shelter of a shopfront and the two of them stood, dripping wet with limp hair and broad smiles. Clara nodded at Rose's proposition, "I can't wait."


	12. Pavlov's Dog

Life felt as if it had returned to normal the moment Clara walked into her dorm.

Her mind still hurt from their trip to Torchwood; science-y words, gadgets and gizmos beyond her mind's conception and even Max the Lyran and caused Clara Oswald's brain to ache beyond belief.

Now herself, Amelia and Danny were back at their university where everything was utterly normal. It was as if the realisation that there is so much unknown didn't even happen. No one around them would fathom the idea that the other day the three of them learnt about the little intricacies that the universe is woven upon.

Sometimes Clara couldn't even fathom it.

Sometimes she wished all the technobabble and mind-blowing discoveries were just a bad dream that she couldn't seem to escape from.

Amelia Pond was draped across Clara's bed with her legs clad in knee-high socks dangling off the side. Her flaming hair had been pulled into high ponytails and from her lips a sticky pink balloon grew, before popping into a strawberry spatter only to be sucked back into her mouth for further chewing.

"You really should come to the party tonight," Amelia had been trying to convince Clara on embracing her fleeting days of University life but every time Clara had knocked her back.

"What's even the theme? Slutty school girls?" Clara scoffed, nodding towards Amelia's choice of clothes.

"Well the theme is the letter S," Amelia grinned, "so yes, I was going for schoolgirl but the length of my skirt does do slutty justice."

"I'd be surprised if that thing even covers your bum," Clara shook her head, "but no, I'm far too busy with assessments. I'm not like you, leaving everything to the last minute."

Amelia rolled her eyes, "procrastination is an art form, dear friend. You should revere me for being able to type out ten thousand words within a night."

Clara snorted. She was sitting cross-legged up the top end of her bed, her laptop resting on her folded legs. The screen was covered in an empty word document, she had meant to start typing hours ago but was pulled out of that wish when Amelia needed help deciding every intricate detail of her costume.

"Danny might be there," Amelia looked up at Clara, a smirk pulling at her lips.

"The Maths department at a party?" Clara asked, "You're kidding yourself. They barely see sunlight let alone a party. And anyway, Danny's not going, he's helping me with all the science stuff."

"What a boring date," Amelia sighed.

"We're not like that," Clara countered back. "Who are you going to the party with? It is not like Amelia Pond to show up as a slutty schoolgirl without someone to help fend off the admirers."

"Unlike you, I actually am proactive and got myself a date," Amelia sprung up from lounging on the bed, her eyes alight with excitement as if she had been waiting for hours just for Clara to ask that very question.

"Who?"

"Rory from the Medical School."

"Doctor?"

"No, nurse."

"How did this happen?"

"I'll tell you later," Amelia hopped off the bed, eyes flicking to the clock across from her. "I have a party to attend."

"See you tomorrow?" Clara questioned, testing to see if she would have a drunken Amelia knocking on their door at 4am.

"Catch up for brunch?" Amelia questioned back, giving Clara the answer she needed.

"Your shout for coffee," Clara smiled before Amelia left their dorm, her face bright with a grin.

With the dorm all to herself, Clara sunk into her bed. Her large brown eyes stared at the blank page before her, not even a single word had been typed out even though it had been open for hours. She flicked open to a second document that was filled to the brim with notes; quick jots of conversations shared, information discovered and quirky trivia that may have been useful as she wrote about the Impossible Girl.

She then opened up a third document that was given the appropriate title of _Science Nonsense._ Danny had written a rough draft of the introductory concepts although he was no literature student. His mind was compiled of algorithms and theories, not eloquent words and how to use commas to elongate a sentence.

Slowly, Clara began the painstaking process of pulling apart the science side of her report; rewriting sentences and adding joining words every now and then to make it feel less of something written with the mind of a computer.

It was slow but by the time her stomach started to growl, a thousand words were carved onto her previously empty document.

Clara set aside her laptop and went to rummage through the fridge. Her and Amelia weren't exactly the best when it came to healthy eating but she was thankful when half of last night's pizza sat welcoming in the fridge. Cold pepperoni pizza sounded a lot better than the two-minute noodles she knew all too well. Again, they weren't the best at stocking up on greens but they sure knew how to stock up on cheap food and takeout.

Taking the pizza back to her bed, Clara curled up around her laptop and continued to dissect the science. It didn't take her long until she stumbled across just one of many phrases that allured her knowledge.

When her phone rang moments later, Clara asked a question instead of saying a dutiful hello.

"What's Pavlov's dog? Is it the same sort of deal as Schrödinger's cat?"

_"Good evening to you too Clara."_

"Seriously Danny, what's that supposed to mean? That this investigation is a classic example of Pavlov's Dog?"

_"Pavlov was the creator of the modern form of conditioning. He did an experiment were dogs responded to the sight of a research assistants' white lab coats. The assistants would bring food with them and after a while the animals had come to associate lab coats with the presentation of food. Pavlov noted that when the dog's were conditioned with that association, they would salivate at the sight of the lab coats even_ if no food was present."

Clara remained silent for a few moments, "what has Pavlov's Dog got to do with Rose Tyler and why do scientist name experiments after pets?"

_"I may not be a psychology major but the whole thing reminded me of the experiment."_

"How so?"

_"From what I saw of Rose Tyler, I felt as if in a way, she had been conditioned like Pavlov's dog. Swap the lab coats for crazy science and the food for the Doctor. After she had been fully conditioned to associate science and the exploration of unknown to the Doctor, you take away the variable of the Doctor and she still hypothetically salivates."_

"I'm not going to compare Rose to a dog."

_"It's just a study, Clara. But you have to admit it, you see the similarities?"_

Clara paused for a moment before responding, "yeah I guess so. When I think about it, the _Dimension Cannon_ kind of fits with your theory."

_"In Theory that cannon is ludicrous but Rose has been conditioned to associate crazy science with the Doctor."_

"So you don't think it'll work?"

This time it was Danny's turn to let silence linger before replying, _"honestly no. I've tried to think about all the formulae her team might use to make it a reality but it just seems too farfetched; pulling apart the universe and falling into one of the infinite other universe's that exist. The odds against her reaching the right one are..."_

"Impossible?"

_"There's no such thing as impossible, Clara Oswald. Although improbable is probably a better way to describe it."_

"I think it will work," Clara countered. "I get it, the odds are stacked up so high but for the sake of this investigation, for the sake of Rose Tyler I hope it works."

Silence filled the phone line for elongated moments before Danny asked a final question, _"How are you going with your draft?"_

"I have more than enough to show O'Leary tomorrow so I think I might call it a night."

_"You have more than enough time to head to the party Amelia was talking about."_

Clara laughed, "so she was talking about it to you as well? Nah, I'll pass on this one. As much as I would love to go out, I don't think my body will like me when I have to wake up at 7am tomorrow."

_"Fair enough."_

"Why aren't you going to the party?"

_"Thought you already knew the reasons? Math nerds don't go to parties."_ He paused to let a laugh escape him, _"Nah, it's one of my mate's 22__nd__ so we're doing our inaugural Pokemon birthday bash."_

"Have fun with that."

_"Goodnight Clara."_

"Goodnight Danny," Clara terminated the phone call and let her eyes wander back to her laptop. The words _Pavlov's Dog_ still stood out to her and Clara Oswald couldn't help but think. Danny was onto something about Rose Tyler but he didn't pick up the other subject at the hands of the psychology terminology. Clara herself was the dog in the experiment although the variables were different. The lab coat was Torchwood and the food now science. She had started to become conditioned to the things that hurt her head the most. Although the lab coat's still brought her food, it was only time before the food vanished and Clara's mouth would keep salivating. The quest for the unknown, to get Rose home and unfurl the mysteries that shrouded the Universe was Clara's hamartia. She hated the way she couldn't understand it but at the same time, she wanted to see a conclusion. She had, in turn, become Pavlov's Dog and the enigma of Rose Tyler's life had become Schrödinger's Cat.


	13. More Than Science Fiction

"This isn't a course for fiction, Miss Oswald. If you wanted to ramble about time travel and silly blue boxes you should have enrolled in Mitchell's sci-fi lecture," O'Leary shook her head; tight auburn curls bouncing around her neck.

"This isn't science fiction Miss, it is science _fact,_" Clara countered as her lecturer flipped through her draft from across the table.

"I get that I said there aren't limits but there is a limit to my patience," O'Leary flicked through the pages before landing on the one explaining Pavlov's Dog. "I commend the dedication you have put to your work, the explanations a thorough and written in a way that makes my literature brain comprehend but this..." she flipped to where Rose's story began, "this is no more than a work of fiction you've slapped into a so-called investigation."

"I'm not making this up Sonya, this isn't a space opera coined up on some nerd website. This isn't a conspiracy so farfetched like Tommy is doing. I mean, if you can honestly allow him to investigate the insemination of Lyran DNA into human subjects but not allow Rose Tyler's story... well, something doesn't add up there."

"Thomas has solid evidence of it happening."

"And I don't?" Clara countered back sharply. "I've met her, been to Rose's house and laid my hand on alien technology that even science fiction has yet to think about."

O'Leary sighed, her green eyes finding Clara's brown, "this isn't a scientific theory. This is a tale of two star-crossed lovers torn apart from impossible circumstances."

"Nothing is impossible. You just have to believe."

"I'm sorry Clara but I can't believe in something too farfetched, you won't pass with something lacking so much evidence," O'Leary frowned. "Look, it isn't too late to change your investigation, I'll even cut your word minimum to 8,000 if you're tight on time. I've heard some interesting discoveries in stem cell research, you could easily write an investigation about that."

"No," Clara replied abruptly. "I'm sticking with my impossible girl. I'll show you that it's real, that all those funny symbols and diagrams aren't just a figment of fiction.

"Try to sway me Miss Oswald but so far I'm not impressed by what you've shown me. You better be good at pulling miracles otherwise an overall pass may be difficult. This investigation counts for 50% of your final marks for this semester."

"Fine," Clara said through gritted teeth before grabbing her draft and getting up out of her chair; stalking out of O'Leary's office, not caring to say farewell.

In her hands was one of the most important discoveries she could ever find and her lecturer dismissed it as if she was given the next instalment for a Star Trek episode or something like that. Rose Tyler, Jack, the Doctor and all the rest were certainly alive but in Sonya O'Leary's mind were no more than colourful characters from a fictional world.

All her weeks of hard work had been dismissed in less than ten minutes.

Clara Oswald was so angry she wanted to cry.

Outside of the building O'Leary's office was in, the morning sun greeted her; strong and clear hanging in the pale blue sky, watching the world below it. Its heat barely touched her skin, a faint echo of warmth trying to cover the Earth even if it was stretched too thin. The last traces of a lingering summer had slipped away to welcome autumn's chilling touch. Soon it would be too cold to walk outside without a coat to stop the season's chill.

With her draft clutched tightly in her hands she walked below trees that had begun to lose their green, keeping her head down low as she passed classmates and strangers alike. She had gotten halfway to her dorm when a strong hand reached for her left arm, grabbing it to stop her from walking further.

"Get off me!" Clara hissed at the sudden interruption. Hastily trying to yank her arm free, not looking at who the hand belonged to until a familiar voice responded.

"You look as if you're ready to slaughter someone, Ozzie."

"Jack," momentarily her sour mood faded into a smile but it vanished just as quickly as it appeared. "Please don't call me Ozzie."

"Nice to see you too Clara," Jack smirked, his blue eyes shining.

"What are you even doing here? Don't you have important Torchwood business to handle? Meteors down in Cornwall or a new species over in Essex?"

"You are my important Torchwood business," Jack replied. "To tell you the truth, I was kind of expecting that response from your O'Leary. She's a bit of a sceptic but what do you expect from a literature professor? She finds her solace in the words on paper, not the unknown from outer space."

"How'd you know?"

"Where do I start? The angry look in your eyes, the way your knuckles whiten as you clutch your draft. The red ink bleeding from one of the pages where there is no doubt a big line through what she didn't like," Jack shrugged. "You're easy to read."

"Stupid alien," Clara muttered, trying to free her arm. Jack's gripped stayed steady.

"Do you want O'Leary to change her mind? Rose gets back from her meteor hunt this afternoon. I could send her to O'Leary; if she see's your impossible girl then maybe she'll start believing that the impossible is a reality."

Clara considered for a moment, her eyes locked on Jack until her head moved in response.

"Good girl," Jack replied. "Tomorrow when you go to class you'll see that she's had a change of heart."

"Thank you."

"I don't need your kindness. I may be several thousand years older than you but I still remember what it felt like to be twenty," Jack grinned. "I may have been running around naked in fields of river grass, barely grasping to become fluent in my twelfth language but I do remember how the young are always easy criers. Don't think I can't see the tears in your eyes."

"I wasn't crying." Clara countered back.

"No, you were about to cry as soon as you got back into your dorm and watch Spirited Away and pretend this morning didn't happen."

"I was going to watch Princess Mononoke," Clara corrected, a smirk flickering to life. "How'd you even know?"

"After living for as long as I have, it becomes rather easy to read people," Jack shrugged, finally letting go of Clara's arm.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure thing."

"Is your real name Jack Harkness?"

He didn't reply straight away, "Nah, over the years you pick up different names to accommodate the environment you've wound up in."

"So your actual name?"

He smiled, "in your tongue, the closest name would be Boe."

"Boe," Clara repeated slowly, "you suit Jack more."

He winked at he, "now off you go Clara Oswald and enjoy your Princess Mononoke, I'll sort out O'Leary for you."

She went to say thank you but the words caught on her tongue before they could become vocalised, "see you around?"

Jack nodded, "see you around."

* * *

The next day was rainy and miserable. It wasn't just a simple spattering of misty rain but an onslaught of heavy drops sliding free of drooping black clouds. Thunder echoed throughout the day and lightning jumped from cloud to cloud although the fingers of white-hot electricity never reached the ground. The storm had rolled in during the night and if the weather reports were to be trusted, the autumn storm would persist for several days.

The dismal weather meant that many of her classmates chose to skip their lectures in favour of a day in their homes, wrapped in warm blankets watching cheesy daytime television. The few that favoured education instead of soap operas found themselves to their regular seats. The spaces between people were vast and the hall was hushed as everyone kept to themselves; trying to ignore the thunder that caused Clara's pen to rattle off her desk.

O'Leary was up the front of the room, writing up a paragraph example that no doubt the skeleton class would have to replicate in their own words. Her blonde ringlets had been straightened, her usually shoulder-length hair now reached down her back although the weather had caused frizz to invade her otherwise silky locks. Clara was focusing on the change in her hair that she didn't notice the seat next to her become occupied.

"Hey there Clara."

Clara snapped out of her hair study and turned to her right, "Rose! What are you doing here?"

The blonde shrugged, "thought I would join a lecture, see what university life is all about."

Clara's mouth parted a little, surprise getting the best of her. "I have to show you to O'Leary! Jack really does work wonders sometimes."

"Don't bother, I caught up with her last night. She took a bit of convincing but in the end she changed her mind," Rose paused when she caught the professor's eye, waving at the woman before continuing. "You can keep going with your investigation and if you get a good enough grade she's promised to submit your work to several science committee's, to see if any brains want to know about the improbable tale of the bad wolf girl."

"Thank you Rose, I would have been screwed if you didn't come to help," thunder ate up the end of Clara's sentence but it didn't eat up the grin that came to life of her lips.

Rose shrugged, "It's the least I can do for the person who made me more than science fiction."


	14. A Crowded Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i wrote this chapter shortly after a trip to the uk so can you tell i tried to flex my newfound knowledge lmaooo

You would think Londoners would know how to handle rain but every single time they got more than a sprinkle, the entire city turns into chaos. Clara shuffled uncomfortably, wiping drops of rain off her forehead as she stood on the tube platform with Rose close beside her.

_"Due to the current weather conditions, the Piccadilly line is experiencing minor delays. The next train to Uxbridge will be arriving shortly."_

Rose grinned, "It's good to see that London doesn't change, no matter what Universe I'm in."

"Do you think we'll even fit in the next train?" Clara asked as her damp hair began to race around her face from the oncoming train turbulence.

"I'm hoping that us being down the far end will give us a chance of a sneaky seat or some comfortable standing room. Although, it's not a ride on the Piccadilly line during the rain if you aren't squashed in like a can of sardines," a smile crept onto Rose's face as the extremely full train made its way onto the underground platform.

Clara felt herself being pushed on by the people behind her so she went with the flow behind Rose, finding a gap on the seats between two middle-aged men reading the paper.

"So, where's the destination?" Clara asked once the train began to move.

"We'll get off in South Kensington," Rose replied, her eyes focusing in on the Piccadilly line map as she counted out the number of stops, "we've got 7 stations to go."

"Why are we going there?"

Rose shrugged, "thought it would be nice to see what the Natural History Museum is like in this reality."

Clara raised her brows, "since when do we go to normal places and do normal things like normal people?"

"Clara Oswald, before I started travelling I was the most normal girl you could meet. I was a girl who never went for her A levels, who worked in a department store and really loved chips. I guess I am still the same girl, just with a different job these days," Rose moved around in her seat to grab a newspaper that was beneath her.

"No one is ever normal," Clara replied.

Rose ignored her, instead, her attention was drawn to the title on the front of the paper, "The second Lyran invasion. Australia becomes the first country to set up an official Lyran colony. I guess that country is big enough and Max did say that Lyra was a desert climate."

"I guess humans have gotten over the stage where they wanted to kill the invaders," Clara added.

Rose shrugged, "I would go that far, although it is a step in the right direction."

"They're getting more cluey every day," Clara replied. "O'Leary was wrong when she told me your story was too ridiculous. One day humans will accept the truth. Hell, so many scientists already accept the truth. I read way too many journal articles on the multiverse theory."

"Soon, but not yet. I have seen Earth at the end of its life and I have seen this planet when it was a newborn as well as everything in between. I must say that humans do advance quite a lot but it's 2008. Society is still a long way off getting their shit together," Rose opened the newspaper and began reading the article, "1000 Lyrans in the middle of the desert, Max might like to visit sometime."

"What's it like out there? On other planets?" Clara began to ask although she hushed her voice, you could never know who is listening to their conversation in their tightly packed train. "You have told me about Earth but you must have seen other planets among the stars."

"Oh, I did. The Doctor took me to some brilliant planets," Rose looked up from the paper, her brown eyes had lit up. "Some of them inhabited by aliens with scales for skin or three heads and a tail. Other planets were devoid of life but filled with beauty beyond comprehension. No matter how many times I stepped foot onto distant worlds I was always shocked to see five moons or grass that glows or an ocean made of diamonds."

"I wish I could see stuff like that," Clara sighed.

"Maybe you can."

"I don't exactly have any means of transport through time and space," Clara stated the obvious.

"Who knows, alien technology has a habit of finding itself on British soil. Maybe some futuristic device will end up in Torchwood's hands and you'll see it all one day," Rose replied with a wink

Clara smiled, "I like this newfound optimism of yours."

Looking back at the newspaper, Rose shrugged, "It's hard not to be optimistic these days, the Dimension Cannon is finally completed. My team are starting non-human tests next week."

"What are you testing with?"

"A ball and string," Rose tried to hold back a chuckle.

Clara grinned, "Now that's very modern."

"Next stop's us," Rose pointed out when their train pulled into Knightsbridge. Around them, a few people struggled to get past the dozens of bodies that still filled the carriage. "A ball and string may not be modern but it sure can be effective."

Clara nodded, "Keep me updated with how it goes."  
"Remember Clara," Rose responded, "I told you to keep your calendar free in October. I'll be sending Jack to whisk you away to Cardiff when testing starts being positive."

"I'll be looking forward to it."


	15. SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT

In the few weeks since their last meeting, Clara had begun to flesh out her investigation and even though the deadline was two months away, she felt assured that her three-year streak of handing assessment in early wasn't going to break anytime soon.

The downside of spending so much time on one assignment was that Clara kept forgetting all her other university work which led to some awkward moments of realisation when remembering exams that she had forgotten to study for.

Clara was curled up on her bed with books surrounding her like a fortress of academic doom. As each moment passed, Clara regretted choosing the Shakespearean class. At the beginning of the semester, she thought it would be easy credit although she certainly thought wrong.

A knock sounded on her dorm door but she ignored it, instead focusing in on King Lear, frantically highlighting her copy each time a quote related to humanism jumped out at her.

The knock appeared again but she didn't respond. Only Amelia would have reason to show up to their dorm on a Wednesday morning and Clara warned her dorm mate that next time she forgot her key, Amelia could go visit Rory instead. Of course, Amelia was actually kind of fond of that agreement.

Instead of a third knock, the door cracked open, "what's up buttercup?"

Clara tore her eyes off King Lear and shot a glare towards her guest, "you have terrible timing."

Jack Harkness grinned, "nice to see you too Miss Oswald!"

"I have my Shakespeare exam in two hours and if you can't tell, I'm studying," Clara sighed, gesturing towards the piles of books that surrounded her.

"No need for that," Jack responded, moving over towards the bed. He brushed aside several textbooks before sitting down near Clara's feet.

"No need?"

"You're coming with me," he picked up a book, "Shakespeare was a pretty cool dude, I've met him a few times."

Clara ignored the latter statement, "now is really not the best time to go to Cardiff."

"We're not going to Cardiff," Jack replied.

"Well that's good, now let me get back to studying," Clara looked back down at her book which was now more highlighted than not highlighted.

Jack grabbed King Lear, forcing Clara's attention back to him, "there's no fun in studying. Anyway, I bribed Doctor Johansson into giving you an 80% for a test you don't even have to sit. He offered you 90% but I told him he was being greedy."

"You can't do that!" Clara exclaimed, her brown eyes wide with surprise.

"I did," Jack retorted.

"Do your kind have special powers or something?"

Jack shrugged off the question, "I just couldn't let you miss out on our trip to Brighton."

Clara scowled, "why in the world are we going to Brighton?"

"The rift between our Universe and the rest of them seem to be petty weak down there. I honestly have no idea why the anomaly has appeared but hey, it makes testing Rose's cannon a lot easier."

"I'm guessing you want me to leave now?" Clara sighed.

Jack chuckled before getting off Clara's bed and extending a hand out for her to join him, "it's an hour train ride, don't act as if I'm forcing you to go on a month long journey."

*** * ***

The afternoon sun was hidden behind grey clouds by the time the two of them reached Brighton. Jack had led her to an apartment facing the rocky seashore. It brought back memories of when Clara's family would make a weekend trip down to Brighton, pulling up a beach chair on the rocky shore amongst a swarm of all the other tourists who had the exact same idea. Now in the mid-autumn cloudy Wednesday, the beach didn't look like it once did. The ratio between pebbles and people was definitely in favour of the pebbles and the moss grey sea didn't hold the appeal it had back in her childhood summers.

"This doesn't feel very secret," Clara pointed out as Jack reached out to knock on the apartment door.

In return he rolled his eyes, "as I was telling you on the train, we don't have a base in Sussex, so Torchwood just has to make do with an apartment by the sea." He knocks twice, "try to be positive Clara, you're about to witness history."

Several elongated moments passed but finally, the door opened and a girl with short purple hair and a thick Germanic accent greeted them, "good to see you, Jack."

"Back at you Molly." He pulled the girl into a hug before performing formal introductions, "this is Clara Oswald, the journalist we couldn't get rid of. Clara, this is Molly Schmidt, she is one of the crazy-smart engineers who built the dimension cannon."

"Nice to meet you," Clara smiled and extended her hand although Molly ignored her gesture in favour of pulling her into a hug.

When the girl pulled away she nodded towards the two, "come on in, we are about to do another round. Watch out for all the cables, we had to bring our portable set up out here and let's just say that _portable_ is a loose term. This baby will still give us a killer electricity bill."

Inside the apartment, cables littered the floor and computer screens lit up the otherwise dim room and several other people occupied spaces where cables didn't reach. One of those people was Rose. Her hair was neatly tucked away in a braid and she was dressed all in black, definitely playing the Torchwood part.

Rose grinned when she saw Clara, "glad to see you could make it."

"It's good to be here," Clara replied with a little white lie. Torchwood still fully enthralled her but she still couldn't help feeling guilty about ditching her university assessment.

Rose beckoned her over, "what do you think a gap between space and time looks like?"

She thought for a few moments and uneasily replied, "like a black hole?"

Rose shook her head, "it's more like the opposite of that. You'll see it in a second."

"What's it feel like to go through dimensions?" Clara asked.

She was silent for an elongated moment, "cold."

"That's great description, Rose," Jack piped up from beside them

Rose sent a glare in his direction, "shut up Jack. _Cold_ can be a perfectly good description."

"30 seconds until we bring it back across," Molly's voice cut across the room.

Clara looked over at Rose and nodded towards the far wall where no cables or people blocked, "what's over there?"

"That's where we test," Rose told her, "And on the other side of that there is a drone Max made us. It can record footage of its surroundings."

"And where did it go?" Clara furrowed her brows, she couldn't see any drone.

Rose responded, "a different Brighton. If our calculations were correct this block of apartments won't exist and neither will any humans. The dinosaurs are still alive in this reality."

"That's really cool," Clara couldn't help but sound awed.

Rose wasn't as awed, "it's not the right Universe but yeah, it's actually really cool."

Across from them, the wall lit up with harsh white light that sent the Torchwood crew into a flurry.

"It's bright," Clara noted.

"I have visuals on the drone," Molly announced, "bringing it back over now."

Out of the white light, a small grey drone flew into the room and hovered just over Molly's work station as the white light vanished behind it.

"How soon can we do another one?" Rose asked the purple-haired girl.

"I have to recharge the drone," Molly replied as if that was a substantial answer.

"I didn't mean with an inanimate test," Rose shot back. "We are ready to go to human testing."

"Our calculations are still not accurate enough to pinpoint your original universe," Molly warned.

"That doesn't matter just yet, I want to feel what it's like to travel again," Rose ignored the girl.

Clara watched as Molly came to the realisation that she was fighting an uphill battle, "I'd advise that you don't go alone. Our latest attempts have been to dimensions void of human life."

"And why does that need a second person?" Rose asked.

"Workplace health and safety," Jack replied.

Rose smiled, "fine, Clara can come."

"Woah, hold up!" As soon as her name was mentioned, Clara intervened.

Rose looked over to the student, "you told me how you wanted to see the unseen. Now's your chance."

Clara shook her head, "I don't particularly want to walk into that white light. I quiet like this dimension."

"Don't worry we'll get back," Rose nudged her.

"Oh bollocks," Clara sighed. Her gut told her to not go ahead and jump dimensions but curiosity got the best of her. If all her science study was correct, her current predicament was like Schrödinger's cat. Until she stepped through that dimension, everything was just a theory. The idea of having another universe on the other side of the white light was both real and not real. It isn't until Clara steps into the unknown that she can truly find out of that god damn cat is dead or alive.

Since Clara didn't put up a fight, Rose grabbed her by the arm, "I'm taking that as a yes, start us up, Molly."

"Aye ma'am," Molly responded but Clara could tell she wasn't too fond of the situation.

Rose pulled Clara towards the wall only for Jack to intervene, "is this really a good idea?"

"You're just jealous Jack," Rose sighed.

"She's not qualified for this," he gestured towards Clara

"She's qualified in my eyes," she shot back.

"She's not Torchwood," Jack clarified. "No offence, Clara."

"None taken," Clara shrugged.

Beside them, Molly started running the start-up procedure, "Dimension Cannon is ready. It looks like the Brighton we have isolated is currently sunny and 18 degrees. This building seems to be a bookstore so I hope it is empty enough at this time of day so your entrance isn't noticed."

"Ready?" Rose asked, squeezing Clara's arm lightly.

Being honest, Clara replied, "not particularly."

Grinning, Rose winked, "when I say run: run."


	16. A Familiar Face

Clara could feel time escape her.

White light enveloped the two girls, ripping them from their universe. It was instantaneous yet felt stretched to infinity.

They were nothing within the endless white yet they were everything.

Around them, the light was cold, coating their bodies in a sensation that Clara could not even begin to fathom: they were touching absolute zero.

Time lost meaning between dimensions but in what could have been a moment or an aeon, Clara felt warmth returning to her skin. Around them the white faded, revealing the insides of the bookstore and both Clara and Rose hit the ground with speed, narrowly missing a bookcase in front of them."

"Oh my stars," Clara whispered as she grabbed the bookcase to keep inertia at bay. "That was-"

"-exhilarating," Rose finished the sentence. "I almost forgot what that felt like."

"Was that how it felt like? Coming to my universe?" Clara's question was delivered slowly, she was still processing what had happened. One moment she was in the makeshift Torchwood apartment and then in white light and now she was in the same room except it was a bookstore.

Rose nodded, "pretty much. It's a weird sensation don't you think, being somewhere where time doesn't exist?"

"Oh my, we are in a different universe!" Clara's brown eyes turned wide with shock.

"Easy there, you look like you're about to faint," Rose reached out to place a hand on Clara's shoulder.

"I'm fine Rose, really I am. It's just that I'm a little bit surprised," Clara responded in an effort to reassure the blonde.

"Just a bit?" she didn't sound convinced.

"Okay," Clara confessed, "A lot. And by a lot I mean what just happened was unfathomable."

"You gotta get used to it Clara, we gotta do it again in an hour," Rose chuckled. "Thank goodness this bookstore is deserted, do you wanna go outside and see what this universe is like?"

Clara didn't reply straight away; her brain wasn't connecting to her mouth, it was too busy trying to make sense of what had happened. "Is it safe?"

"There is an extremely low chance of a Rose or Clara from this universe to be in Brighton today. It's probable but we have really good odds of being safe. C'mon," Rose nudged her, "it'll be fun. Last time I got to experience a new dimension for the first time I was a crying mess so I'm excited to explore a new universe with my emotions mostly intact."

"We have an hour yeah? That's when the dimension cannon will make the opening again?" Clara asked, just making sure.

Rose nodded.

"Okay then, let's take a look outside." The two of them made their way out of the bookstore. Even though it was closed for the day, the front door still opened from the inside and when they stepped onto the sidewalk, Clara noticed a trend. "There's no people out here."

"Molly said it was populated," Rose assured her. "Just look around us, this looks pretty much the exact same."

Clara looked around. Rose was right about the similarities. All the cream coloured buildings looked identical to her universe, the rocks on the beach seemed the same, even the sea was the same moss green. "Now that's definitely different," Clara pointed out towards the sea and Rose's eyes followed the direction.

"The pier is gone," Rose noted when her eyes met the burnt ruins of the pier just off to their right. Her eyes then followed the coastline further right, "West Pier is still gone as well. Okay, so both of them got unlucky with fire?"

"There is just something not right about this Rose. Where are all the people? There is no one on the beach or on the walkway and there aren't any cars," Clara turned her attention to the storefronts that lined the main road, "the bookstore isn't the only thing closed. Everything's shut, even the aquarium by the looks of it."

"Okay, slightly creepy," Rose admitted.

"So why is everyone gone?"

Rose bit her lip, "I'm getting a bad feeling about this."

Clara let out a nervous laugh, "Of course we end up in a ghost town the first time I travel through dimensions. Just my luck!" Clara sighed and took a seat on the stairs to the bookstore, "It could have been worse..."

"You spoke too soon," Rose's voice trailed off in response, her mouth slightly agape.

"What do ya mean?" Clara followed Rose's line of sight, beyond and above the West Pier in the far distance until she found what she was looking at.

"We need to go," Rose spun around when a realisation hit, grabbing Clara by the arm and yanking her up off the stairs and up towards the road.

"What is it?" Clara shook her arm free, the anxiousness she was feeling before had turned into curiosity. "Surely they aren't planes?"

"They're not," Rose replied sharply, not stopping to grab Clara again. "Us hopping dimensions probably set off an alert, they'll be here in minutes!"

"What are they?" She asked once more.

"You don't want to know," Rose replied. "C'mon, they'll probably blast the bookstore but we can try hiding in another building."

"For some reason, I doubt that hiding near the building will be a very safe hiding spot. Especially if whatever those things blow the store up," Clara grudgingly followed Rose down the street.

"We don't have time to go anywhere fancy," Rose said while looking over her shoulder every few steps; monitoring how far away the danger was. "Up here Clara, this diner looks like it could be open."

Clara followed her into an unassuming diner nestled below apartments, five doors down from the bookstore. The sign was faded blue with the words '_fish and chips, burgers, pies'_ written in white letters that were starting to peel. Inside the lights were on and when Rose opened the glass door, the bell above it welcomed them with a brisk chime.

"Don't you think this is a bit odd?" Clara asked as she took a step inside, "And what in the bloody hell are those flying things?"

Rose turned to face her, "Daleks. Those things want to take over the Universe and back from where I came from, oh boy they have tried. By the looks of it, they may have actually gotten away with exterminating everyone."

"Not everyone," a familiar voice replied from within the diner.

Before the two could even turn around, Rose knew the voice, "what are the bloody odds."

"Who are you?" the voice asked again and by the time the two made eye contact with the third person in the room, the voice had an answer.

"No way," Clara had to hold back shocked laughter, "no bloody way can this be happening."

Behind the counter in the diner was a short girl with big brown eyes and chocolate coloured hair who had turned ghost white with shock, "you can't be."

Clara took a step back, half out of sheer shock and half out of caution, "I'm Clara Oswald and who the hell are you?"

The girl behind the counter folded her arms across the chest, "No, I'm Clara Oswald."

Besides Rose, Clara whispered, "this can't be happening." Before letting her legs buckle beneath her as shock turned into fainting and the world around her turned black.


	17. No Two Claras Are Ever The Same

_"It was all a dream," Clara laughed, falling onto the couch beside Danny Pink. They were in the Maths department and within Danny's hands was a revision of her assignment, all marked in red and decorated with sticky notes._

_"I think you need to take a week off, it's starting to consume you, Clara," Danny warned while his eyes flicked through the paper._

_"You know, I think you're right Mr Pink," Clara agreed, "I've solved the mystery of the impossible girl, it's time I focus on uni again. It's just that my dream last night felt so real."_

_"You told me you dreamt about intergalactic housemaids that were flying along the Brighton seaside? How's that realistic in any way?" Danny chuckled, "I guess they would make pretty funny Halloween costumes. Speaking of which, I never got your answer about coming to my party."_

_Clara smiled, "I was trying to ignore the fact that you wanted me to party with someone dressing up as a Pokemon."_

_"Hey!" Danny gasped, "I've spent months planning my Blastoise outfit."_

_"Nerd," Clara confirmed, "but yeah, I'll tag along as long as I don't have to dress up as a total dork."_

_"I saw those Gryffindor robes in your dorm, I already know you'll be coming as Hermione," Danny shrugged, "It's a date."_

_"It's a date," Clara smirked._

_"You know what?"_

_"What?"_

_"One thing about your dream didn't make sense. Well, two things didn't make sense," Danny stated._

_Clara looked over to him, "what didn't?"_

_Danny sighed for a moment before starting, "when Rose explained a Dimension Cannon I was expecting something a bit more, ya know, cannon-y. And the Brighton Clara, I was expecting a bit more of a cause and effect. Running into yourself or relatives got so hyped up in science fiction that I was expecting more of a bam!"_

_"It was just a silly dream, none of that actually happened," she chuckled, "I guess that's what you get when a non-nerdy girl dreams about really nerdy things."_

_"It's just —"_

"Clara! Clara, can you hear me?"

Around her blackness faded into blurry colour. Rose's face blocked the bright overhead light in the diner and Clara's eyes fluttered until they could focus in on Rose's worried face.

"What happened?" Clara asked with weary slowness.

"You saw another version of yourself," Rose explained. "Don't worry, I freaked out the first time I saw the other me, except the other me is a dog so it wasn't as bad," Rose couldn't help but let a chuckle escape. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Um..." she trailed off, trying to assess her situation, "I'm alright, just a bit light-headed."

_"Please state your designation!"_

"What's that?" Clara asked while sitting up too quickly.

Rose placed both hands on her shoulders, easing Clara into an upright position, "easy there, it's just the Daleks. The other Clara's taking care of it."

"Aren't they bad?" she asked, looking over Rose's shoulder to see the other Clara outside, facing off the three bronze colour mechanical creatures. "They don't exactly look intimidating, they look prepared to unblock drains and whisk a cake, though."

"Trust me, they are a lot worse than you think," Rose pulled Clara's attention back to her. "They're classic xenophobes, they hate everything that isn't Dalek. In this Universe, the Daleks have overtaken every political power and destroyed all the military. They have converted those deemed worthy of becoming one of them and the rest have either been exterminated or left to live in fear like the other you has."

"Sounds terrible," Clara grimaced.

Rose smiled, "count your lucky stars you've only had the Cybermen and the Lyrans to deal with."

"The Cybermen?"

"2006? Tried converting everyone into robots? If it wasn't for the Doctor we would all be anything but human," Rose's eyebrows raised when none of that was ringing a bell for the girl beside her.

"You were in my Universe before the battle of Canary Wharf?" Clara furrowed her brows, "you never told me that."

"I'll let you add it as a footnote, time and space can be funny sometimes."

Outside of the Diner, the other Clara was still entwined with the Daleks, "please state the identity of the two humans in the building or you will be exterminated!"

_"I don't know them, they're just visiting from France."_ Outside, the other Clara still negotiated with the Daleks. Her words were short and emotionless to counteract the harshness inflicted by each syllable the Dalek's spoke.

_"Please state the identity of the two humans in the building!"_

_"They're Amelie Dubois and Madalene Moreau. Just two travellers staying in the bed and breakfast upstairs!"_

Rose smiled, "She's good at thinking on her feet."

"Will that get them off our case?" Clara asked, her voice dropped to a whisper out of worry that the Daleks could hear them.

Rose nodded towards the window, "by the looks of it, Clara saved the day." The three Daleks backed up before taking back off towards the west.

The two watched as outside, the other Clara spun around, her large brown eyes were open with fear. She flung the diner door open, "What the hell did you two do? And how in the world are you Clara Oswald?"

"You won't believe us even if you wanted to," Clara replied, slowly getting up into a standing position.

"Try me," the other Clara folded her arms across her chest and a pout formed on her lips.

"Well," Rose began, "Myself and Clara come from different Universes and we got here, to your universe because we ripped open the fabric of time and space with a device that still needs some tweaking. Our little disruption was what brought the Daleks here, sorry about that. They'll be visiting you again when we leave."

Across from them, the other Clara slowly nodded while taking a seat slowly, "and here I was expecting you to play the 'twin separated at birth' card."

"What are you doing in Brighton, uh..." Clara hesitated, "can I call you Oswald? It's just like looking in a mirror and it's gonna get confusing if I try to write about a second Clara."

"You're writing about this?" Rose asked, failing at hiding her surprise.

"Gotta get to the word count?" Clara shrugged. "What's your life been like?" she turned to Oswald and walked over to sit beside the girl who was her in every single way shape and form.

"I gave up on university and tried my luck at running the B&B upstairs. I guess I thought life would be easier down here in Brighton but it really isn't," Oswald shrugged, her eyes never left Clara's and she couldn't help but tear her gaze away, it felt creepy to stare at a mirror image. "If there are multiples of everyone does that mean there is a Clara who actually became an English teacher?"

"I guess so," Clara nodded. "I'm only new to all this but there is an infinite amount of dimensions so there is one where we are teachers or nannies and there is probably one where our parents said yes to getting a hamster named Sam."

"Do you think there is one where I marry Leonardo DiCaprio?" Oswald asked and behind them, Rose let out a snigger.

"In theory, yes!" Clara grinned, "that Clara's very lucky."

"I know it must be surreal, seeing you who isn't who but I think we can all come to the conclusion that no two Clara's are ever the same," Rose butted in, coming over to stand next to the girls. "Clara, we should be getting back to the bookshop soon so we can go back across as soon as the gap between dimensions opens. I don't know about you but I really don't wanna stick around when the Daleks get back."

The other Clara replied before Clara could get a chance, "hang on a second. You're just going to leave me here to fend off the Daleks a second time? Thankfully for me, I was able to make up legitimate French names but those tin can terminators won't be as merciful the second time."

"You can't come with us if that's what you are implying. One Clara Oswald is all a universe needs," Rose gave her a pity shrug. "I'm sure there are other people around for the Daleks to pick on when they come back. You won't be exterminated although they will probably exterminate the bookshop. Speaking of which," she reached out to grab Clara's arm, "we best be off."

"Before you go," the other Clara asked, "can you tell me what life's like for you? It's not every day you get to meet someone who is you but not you in every which way."

Clara smiled, "I'm studying to be an investigative journalist which is why I got myself into this predicament. I live in the heart of London and it's so much fun there. The people are rude in the streets but so friendly when you talk to them. I don't think London will ever change, no matter what universe. We have zeppelins that fly in the sky, I've never been on one though since only the rich and famous use them and we too had aliens invade Earth. Except ours were the Lyrans and they ended up being pretty cool."

"Journalist hey," the other Clara grinned, "I wanted to be one as a kid."

"Me too," Clara nodded. "Rose is right, we should probably head off. Sorry about the Daleks. They look like they would make perfect housemaids with their little arm things but their voice... it sounds like it came straight out of a retro sci-fi show that used to scare me as a kid." Clara reached out to shake the other girl's hand but instead, Oswald pulled her into a hug.

"It was a great experience to meet you but for all I know, this is a tequila inspired dream and I am passed out upstairs on the couch with Gilmore Girls playing in the background," Oswald laughed into Clara's hair.

"Why does that sound so relatable?" Clara joined in on her doppelgängers chuckles.

With that Clara left the other her in the diner and she followed Rose along the seaside road back towards the bookstore. If it hadn't been for the Daleks and her replica, she would never have expected the Brighton they were in to be a whole different universe. Everything felt so similar although slightly less populated; if she thought about it too hard Clara would give herself a headache or an existential crisis or maybe both.

"Rose," Clara began by choosing her words carefully, "have you ever thought about finding the other Doctor? Like, if there are different versions of me and you, surely there would be other Doctors?"

Almost immediately, she responded, "it wouldn't be the same."

"Why not?" Clara shot back. "I mean, the Clara we just met seemed pretty close to who I am."

"Time Lords are different. They have multiple lives and can have any face. They don't stick to the constraints of time. The Doctor in this dimension might be ten or ten thousand years old. He would certainly not be like the Doctor I know, he might not even have a TARDIS," her words were brief and tense. Clara could tell that she was fighting back emotions; Rose Tyler did that a lot.

"So I'm gonna take that as a no," Clara wound the conversation up as the two entered the bookstore.

"It's time to take you home," Rose led her towards the wall wherein they entered. "I hope this has been an enriching experience but I think I can go it alone from here. My team is working on making the Dimension Cannon portable. That way I can come and go dimensions as I please."

"What about the accuracy? Will you just jump between dimensions endlessly until you find your home?" Clara questioned.

Rose sighed, "my team is so close to figuring out how to manipulate the fabric of space and time. We're getting more accurate dimensions each test." Before the two of them, white light began to pour out of the wall, cutting the conversation short. "Come on Clara," Rose nudged the girl beside her, "time to take you back to reality."


	18. Juxtaposition

"What did you see?" Jack's voice was the first to greet them upon returning back to what Rose sometimes classified as 'Pete's World'. No matter what it was called, it was Clara's universe and she was home in one piece after doing what many considered scientifically impossible; all before dinner time.

"Another me," she replied with a grin on her lips.

"And Daleks," Rose added which was responded by Jack with a shiver. "Molly, tomorrow we gotta work out how to make the equation more accurate; we got off easy just then but I highly doubt the Daleks will be as merciful in every dimension."

"Daleks!" Jack stepped over to Rose, pulling her attention towards him, "I'm not letting you hop into another dimension until the cannon can steer clear of those things. I've never had to experience them but from both your own and Max's stories, I sure as hell never want to."

"Just don't step into the white light and you won't have to deal with them," Rose sighed, "the Dalek's in this Universe don't have their eyes set on Earth just yet. You'll still have a good few thousand years here until you'll have to pack up and leave."

"I'm not talking about the tin cans here, I meant the ones in the other universe! What happens if you land right in the middle of Dalek HQ and they follow you across?" Jack was adamant.

"It won't happen," Rose placed an assuring hand on his shoulder before turning towards Clara, "there are spare beds upstairs if you want to spend the night."

"There's no point in me staying," Clara brushed off the invitation, "I have all my evidence now. All I have left to do is keep drafting until it's perfect."

"What happened to you being Rose's new companion?" Jack smirked at his choice of words which earned him a sly glare from Rose.

"I have my faith that Rose can manage by herself. Anyway, seeing another me was the tip of the iceberg when it comes to dimension-hopping; nothing can top that now," Clara shrugged and began to walk towards the entrance. "If I leave Brighton now I might make it back to London in time to see the West End show Amelia has been begging me to see for months."

"It's going to be peak time, I can already imagine how packed the train will be between Gatwick and Victoria," Jack's face contorted into fake disgust; his weak attempt at making her stay.

"Nice try," Clara laughed and then looked over to Rose, "I'll see you around?"

She nodded, "I'll keep you updated."

With that, Clara left the makeshift Torchwood in the unassuming Brighton house that blended in with all the other cream coloured Victorian-era buildings on the street. She could already pick up the differences between her Brighton and the other Clara's Brighton; people littered the streets, the pier was fully intact and lit up with all the overpriced rides and no Dalek's were in sight. It was perfectly normal yet now, after seeing a second version of the seaside town, she couldn't help but wonder what the world would be like in other dimensions.

There were infinite possibilities and she had only seen two (her own and the other Clara's). She was curious yet understanding about why Rose wanted her to stay in her own universe. Clara had friends, family and in the future, a promising career awaited her; she had no reason to want to explore besides curiosity. It's too bad that curiosity killed the cat, otherwise, Clara would have clung onto the dimension cannon as if it was catnip.

The train back into London was busy but not overwhelmingly packed; she pinched a window seat and was able to watch the English landscape fly past her blended shades of green and grey. It was when she got into Victoria station that she was hit by the overwhelming amount of people that all had places to be and didn't care about anyone else around them. Both the Victoria and Piccadilly lines were packed beyond comfort and Clara spent the entire commute to Covent Garden squished into train doors and dodging people struggling to get in and out. She didn't get free of the sea of Londoners until turning into the unassuming Covent Garden street where the Fortune Theatre was nestled in.

Amelia was standing outside the theatre doors and by her side was the guy who could only be Rory Williams; the nursing student she had been seeing and was all too quiet about when Clara asked about the mystery man. In the past, Amelia had always been loud and proud with who she chose to date and never short of PDA but with Rory, she had almost kept him a secret. In Clara's eyes, it was cute to see her friend take a different route of expressing her affection; she was bored of the cheesy public displays of affection and constant dates where she third wheeled. It seemed that the latter still applied; it was only the three of them. Clara Oswald was once again Amelia Pond's wing woman.

"Thought you weren't going to make it," Amelia pulled her into a hug; she was dressed up in a black dress that hugged her body in all the right places. Clara hadn't had time to change out of the clothes she had been planning on wearing to the exam; definitely not theatre appropriate but it would have to do.

"Took me three attempts to get onto the Piccadilly line at Green Park," Clara shrugged, "never seen the tube so packed."

"What were you doing over there?" Amelia's eyes looked quizzically down at her friend. "I thought your exam was on campus?"

"I didn't go to the exam," Clara admitted; a nervous smile dancing on her lips. Amelia's eyes narrowed onto her in confusion but she ignored it, turning the conversation towards the third person in the party. "So it looks like I finally get a chance to meet you."

Rory's face lit up with an awkward smile, "I've heard nothing but good things about you."

Clara scoffed, "I doubt that. She's probably told you about all my terrible drunken nights in second year."

Amelia responded with a laugh and Rory's gaze fell onto the floor, "yeah, she might have mentioned one or two."

"It's okay Rory, they're pretty funny stories," Clara reassured. "Amelia just loves telling everyone in the world about the silly things I do."

From inside the theatre, the three of them heard the five-minute warning call, "we should go inside," Amelia noted. "I'm excited to see if the play lives up to the book."

• • •

After the show, the three of them headed up to the tube station, chatting loudly in the streets, trading thoughts and opinions of the play.

"I'll admit it, The Woman in Black is a lot scarier on stage," Rory suppressed a shiver. "It's her face, it just gets to you."

"Aww, you're a little scaredy-cat," Amelia leaned over and ran her finger across his nose in a subtle gesture of affection.

"I'm pretty sure you're the one who screamed three times during the second act," Clara chuckled beside Amelia; the redhead had always been prone to getting scared by horror.

Amelia rolled her eyes and threw the conversation in Clara's direction, "what did you get up to today? It's not like Clara Oswald to skip an exam."

"Oh you know, just visited another dimension," she kept her words light and airy; Rory didn't have the slightest clue what she had gotten herself into and Clara didn't want to tell him all the quirky things about her too quickly.

Beside her, Amelia was speechless while Rory was more confused, "is that secret code for something?"

Clara grinned, "I went down to Brighton and caught up with some people who are helping me with my assignment, nothing massive."

"What about your exam?" Amelia asked, choosing to follow Clara's lead and keep Rory in the dark.

"Jack took care of it," she winked, "and thankfully. I was so far behind on my Shakespeare study."

Beside them, Rory chipped in even though he was oblivious to the true context of the conversation, "do you think your Jack could take care of my anatomy exam I have next week?"

Clara shrugged, "You really don't want to owe Jack any favours, especially not a pretty face like you."

Laughter trickled out of Amelia and she pulled Rory close to her side, "I told you that I'll help you study anatomy anytime."

As the three of them made their way home on the tube, Clara couldn't help but think about how the day had been a juxtaposition of her life. She had gone from being a student, cramming in her last-minute studies to an inter-dimensional explorer alongside the girl who didn't belong in either dimension. She had met a parallel her and seen Daleks who seemed to be hell-bent on creating a universal dictatorship. She had come back to her reality and spent the evening doing something so normal that it felt out of place among the chain of events.

Clara Oswald had been allowed a taste at what a life outside of normal conventions felt like. Even though she knew she had to let go of the lifestyle her investigation into Rose had opened up to, Clara didn't know if she was ready to leave it all behind for an average life in the London she knew.

She wanted to see all of the stars, not just write about them on paper.


	19. Beginning of the End

October vanished into cold November where nights began to push the sun out of the sky; winter was soon to take hold of England.

Clara didn't hear from the Torchwood team after Brighton; Jack had not made any more of his inopportune appearances and Rose had stayed silent. She could almost say that life was back to normal if it wasn't for her journalism major essay playing on her mind day and night.

She had found herself in Hyde Park on a crisp Sunday morning in late November. The trees had shed most of their leaves onto the ground that was beginning to freeze; only the last few leaves clung onto trees, refusing to die even as their colours turned from orange to brown.

The last whisper of Autumn was beautiful.

Clara found herself on an unassuming bench in the middle of the large expanse that was Hyde Park. Sometimes people passed her, all of them too occupied with their own lives to notice the student on the bench; some of them even ran past on their morning jog even though frost clung onto the grass and a morning fog still lingered in the air. She never quite understood how people could do exercise in the cold, especially on a day that made Clara put on her winter coat for the first time.

In her hands, she held _The Time Machine _by H.G Wells. She had never been big on science fiction novels but ever since experiencing what it felt like to jump between dimensions, she had begun to open up to the literature and she had quickly fallen in love.

"This will warm you up," a familiar voice broke through the peaceful silence.

Clara looked up from her book to find Rose in front of her, two piping hot coffee's in her hands. "Long time no see," Clara closed her book and reached out to grab one of the drinks.

"I've been busy with Torchwood," she admitted before taking a seat beside Clara.

"What brings you back to London? I doubt it's to see me, we have phones after all," Clara took a sip of the coffee. Extra shot latte with one sugar; her usual order.

"You're right about that," Rose said. "Truth is that I have been neglecting my family in recent months, all of this Torchwood stuff has been taking priority."

"You have family in this world?" Clara couldn't help but ask. Even though she had known Rose Tyler for months, the Bad Wold girl was still full of mysteries and unanswered questions.

She nodded, "Pete Tyler's my dad, you would have seen him in the media. Mum and Mickey are from my Universe; I wasn't the only one left on the wrong side of the gap in time. They live in Kensington now, thanks to dad's money; definitely a step-up from the Peckham estates we lived in back in my world."

"Who's Mickey?" Clara asked between sips of her coffee.

Rose didn't answer straight away, "A good friend of mine. We had something a long time ago but what we had is gone, it vanished the moment I chose to explore the stars instead of staying home." she stopped for a moment to take a sip, "when the Cybermen tried taking over London Mickey stayed behind in this dimension. There was nothing left for him back home but here he had his gran. That's why visiting parallel universes are so tempting; you might find a loved one that has died in your world but is still very much alive on the other side."

"That means there must be dimensions where my mother is still alive," Clara whispered.

Rose looked over at the brunette, a small smile quickly dancing on her lips. "You're right about that."

"How did you find me today? It's not like Hyde Park is small," Clara asked, changing topics.

"You should know by now," she replied, "I find you when I need you."

"Need or want? Those are two different concepts," Clara looked at the girl beside her with raised brows.

Rose chuckled at the comment, "trust the English student to pick up on that. I wanted to update you on the Dimension Cannon, thought you might be able to add stuff to your essay."

"Well go on then."

"The Torchwood team have been amazing with their developments, we're having difficulty pinpointing my dimension but because of all the different equations they are using, the canon has developed some very useful side features," a grin lit up her lips. "We're able to find individual timelines and see how they play out. We can pull up information about the people and places and event that have happened which makes avoiding Earth's overtaken by aliens really easy now. Once we lock onto my dimension we can make portable devices that allow us to make a hole in the fabric of the universe and jump from side to side. We're not there yet but we are getting so close Clara, so unbelievably close to the Doctor."

"It's getting real close, you finally finding him again?" Clara asked; the tech talk still went (mostly) over her head but she was beginning to catch on.

"Maybe before the new year comes around I could be back on the TARDIS," Rose smiled at the idea. "It's the beginning of the end."

"What about your family? Are they gonna go back across too?" Clara didn't know if she was stepping into unwelcome waters but she didn't back down.

Rose was silent for a few elongated moments before replying, "Mickey wants to go back. His gran passed away last month, she was the reason he stayed last time but now he has no one. I'm not so sure about mum and dad. I mean, mum would love to see her friends again but Pete's from this world and they have a child together now so she may not want to go back."

"Will you be able to see them again if they stay here?"

She shrugged, "I'm hoping that once we establish a connection with my dimension, we'll be able to freely jump across. The Doctor wouldn't be fond of the idea, nothing good ever comes from cracks in spacetime. When's your assignment due?"

"19th," Clara replied, "I still have a few weeks but I'm struggling to find an ending. I have a beginning; a backstory. I have a middle; your current story. I'm yet to find the perfect ending."

"I thought investigations didn't need an ending," Rose commented before taking a sip of her coffee that was rapidly becoming lukewarm in the cold Sunday air.

"They don't," she confirmed. "What they need is a conclusion, a reiteration of the thesis where you draw upon everything you have research to form a closing statement."

"You have just under a month to work out an ending. You're smart Clara, you'll work it out for sure." Rose used her free hand to dig into her jacket pocket, pulled out a silver keycard and handed it to Clara. "I'll be in London from now on, Torchwood made us transfer all work to HQ. They say it's because they have the highest technology but I know it's just because they want to keep an eye on me."

Clara took the keycard, "what's this for?"

"HQ," Rose went to stand up, "One Canada Square, Canary Wharf. Swipe the keycard in the elevator and press level 48, that's where I am based out of now."

"Why do I have this," Clara asked, slight confusion hinted on her words.

"You still have over three weeks until your paper is due. Come pay me a visit beforehand, you'll be amazed at what has changed since Brighton," Rose winked. "Have a good day, I'll see ya around."

"See ya," Clara gave her a slight wave as Rose walked off down one of the many walkways in the park, leaving Clara alone once again on the bench with a coffee that was just a bit too close to room temperature to enjoy.

When Rose had vanished beyond skeleton trees, Clara reached into her pocket to pull out her phone. She had an idea, a very stupid idea that would most likely end her up in trouble with the Torchwood team. It was an idea that if she pulled it off, would be brilliant but if it failed, it would be detrimental.

It took three rings until her call was answered, _"good morning Clara."_

_"_Did I wake you?" she asked with surprise, it was well after ten.

_"It's too cold to get out of bed, my flatmates refuse to use central heating until December."_

"Well Danny, I was wondering if you could do me a very special favour?"

_"I don't like the sound of where this is going."_

Clara grinned, "I'm taking that as a yes."


	20. The (Actual) Impossible Girl

"Are you sure about this?"

Around them the night was devoid of life; Canary Wharf, one of the two business districts of London, was a ghost town in the darkness. After sundown, the docklands were just an echo of the district that bustled with life when sunlight touched the skyscrapers. Some buildings still had a spattering of windows that glowed yellow and white from workers burning the midnight oil; major international banks never slept in Canary Wharf, there was always a foreign stock market open.

The building towering before them was One Canada Square; it was a sleeping giant and Clara Oswald was going to wake it up.

"I can never be sure, Danny, but I sure as hell know that I want to try this out," Clara reached into her jacket pocket, pulling out the keycard that Rose had given her the week before.

"What can go wrong?" Amelia, the third person in the group, questioned. "It's just 2AM on a Sunday morning and we have absolutely no way of getting back to any of our homes and if this goes wrong we could get charged for breaking and entering. The best worst-case scenario is that we end up in Scotland Yard but the more likely scenario is that we all end up locked away in Torchwood's basement and get our memories wiped or something."

"How is Scotland Yard a better worst option?" Danny asked.

She turned around to face him, "I'd rather have to be bailed out of jail than getting my memory wiped."

"We're not going to get our memory wiped," Clara cut in, "because what we are going to do will work. Rose won't exactly be happy with how it happens, though." Clara went up to the after-hours entrance; a small metal door with a keycard lock and swiped her silver card. She didn't realise that she was holding her breath until an exhale escaped; a green light flashed and the sound of the door unlocking broke through the eerily silent night.

"It works," Danny announced from behind her; his words coated with disbelief.

"C'mon, Rose said level 48." Clara nodded for the two of them to follow her inside.

Each time the three of them reached a door or an elevator, the three of them couldn't help but be worried that the keycard would trigger a warning yet every time Clara swiped the card, a green light welcomed them through One Canada Square.

On the 48th floor, the corridor was dark with only a subtle blue security light allowing them to see what awaited them.

"So, what door do we choose?" Amelia asked when stepping out of the elevator. Ahead of them was a corridor that seemed to stretch forever, lined with dozens of the exact same grey doors.

"I'm going to take a guess and say the door with _Dimension Cannon _written on it," Clara suggested before making her way down the corridor.

"Conductor storage, Head of Lyran diplomacy, Milky Way ambassador, U.N.I.T Liaison," Danny announced each door name he passed, "they do everything here."

Halfway down the corridor, Clara almost walked past an unassuming door until she read the name twice, "Cardiff Base outpost. Guys, I think I found it."

Once again she had to swipe her card and for the fourth time, the light turned green. Clara was starting to get worried; _how many more until security got alerted of their 2am adventure?_

Inside, the expansive room was lit up by automatic lights, revealing all the progress that had been made since her last Torchwood visit. Now not as many cables littered the ground; a small improvement.

"Where is the cannon?" Amelia asked, following her into the room. All she could see were computer screens and piles of technology.

"It's not an actual cannon," Clara explained before gesturing over to the opposite end of the room, "All that stuff over there, the computers and the cables, that's the cannon."

Amelia nodded slowly, "not what I was expecting but I'll roll with it."

A half-smile played on Clara's lips, "Danny, do you have the equations ready?"

"Sure do," Danny walked past the two of them towards the desks with a hard drive in his hand.

"If this works Clara," Amelia started compiling a sentence but stopped when the right words wouldn't form.

"I know, it's crazy but I think it will. It's a good thing Danny likes to work out physics problems for his spare time," Clara chuckled.

In front of Danny, computer screens came to life; glowing blue and flashing with extensive code and algorithms. "I'll be able to get you across the universe easy but I can't work out how to time your return. The dimension cannon will bring you back but it could be in a few minutes or a few hours."

"Hours?" Amelia asked uneasily.

"Don't worry, it can't be more than five. That's the variable limit that this machine was built upon," Danny assured. "I have established a connection with the correct universe, a few years in the future. The location is London but I can't be more specific than that."

"Time travelling as well as dimension travelling? I didn't realise you worked out how to do that," Clara walked up behind Danny and watched as the computer screens processed the new code. She didn't know what any of it meant but it was still fascinating to her.

"That's something Torchwood added," Danny pointed to the third screen across from him. "This system is completely new to me but that looks like it's reading all the different timelines. Didn't Rose say that they worked out how to do it?"

"Amazing," Amelia sat in the chair at that particular screen. "Rose's universe still has a Prime Minister."

"Thirty seconds to jump," Danny warned Clara. "You sure about this?"

"I've had a lot of silly ideas in my life and this about tops the lot but yeah, I'm sure," Clara shrugged, her eyes finding the blank wall across from them; in seconds white light would bleed onto it.

"Good luck C," Amelia smiled from her seat. "You're a bloody idiot sometimes but I love you for it. If anyone comes in we'll sort it out."

"You won't end up in Scotland Yard," Clara assured before the wall in front of them turned white. "I'll see you two soon." She gave her two friends one last smile before jumping once again into the icy white gap between dimensions.

* * *

She landed with a thud onto a cool metal floor in a room that was cloaked in dim lighting. Strange noises ricocheted throughout the room; a machine wheezing, buttons being hit.

"Clara? Clara! Why are you on the floor? Did you fall asleep?" a male's Scottish accent joined the strange noises and Clara's brows furrowed; she couldn't see the man who was speaking.

"Where am I?" she asked, sitting up slowly. Her right arm hurt; she landed with more force this time.

"Oh dear, did you hit your head? You humans are such fragile things, a feather could probably injure you," silver hair and a time-worn face met hers with a confused frown.

"Who are you?" Clara asked, "why do you know my name?"

This time the man didn't reply, instead, he reached a hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out a wand-shaped thing. He pointed it towards her and pressed a button; green light and a _vreeeeee _sound came out of it.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm not supposed to see you until Wednesday. Today's Sunday," the man told her as if that explained everything.

"I don't even know you," Clara picked herself off the floor and looked around. The room she was in was spacious and made mostly of metal besides the bookcase that was across from her; It was something out of science fiction.

"Clara, Clara, Clara," he sighed "she must have brought you here for a reason."

"Who did?" Clara questioned and the man stepped closer to her; Clara took a habitual step back from the stranger.

"The TARDIS, she always gets funny when I stop off in London by myself; doesn't like it when I'm alone on Earth," the man grinned as if that sentence explained everything.

Clara stopped in her steps; eyes widening, "did you just say TARDIS?"

"Are you okay Clara?" the man asked again, pointing the small noisy thing towards her once more. "Something's wrong."

"TARDIS?" she asked again for clarification, "I heard you right didn't I? You said TARDIS?"

The silver-haired man looked at the object in his hand, unruly eyebrows knitted together as he whispered, "oh. The impossible girl gets more and more surprising but how did you manage to get here?"

Clara wouldn't back down from her questions, "are you?"

With a raised eyebrow, the man looked over at her, "indeed Miss Oswald. I should have known; you're not as angry as my one although you seem just as stubborn." He took a few steps forward and extended his right hand out, "I'm the Doctor."


	21. Uncertainties Folding Upon Each Other

"It's smaller on the outside!"

"Why are all Clara's the same?" The Doctor's voice echoed from inside the TARDIS.

Clara was standing at the time ship's entrance, observing the other universe that sat outside. They were wedged between two dark brick buildings that engulfed them, swallowing them up and hiding the blue box, the alien and the girl from another universe; foreign objects hidden between the russet bricks. "Where are we?"

"Just a little laneway in Soho," the Doctor came to stand beside the foreign Clara, "There's a nice little cafe near a comic book store just around the corner that I go to. I recommend the muffins."

"You're a bit different to what I thought," Clara stepped out into the cobbled lane, the dark stones were slick from recent rain and the air nipped at her skin with an icy bite. The out-of-the-way lane in the heart of London was cloaked with soft grey light; early morning sunlight attempting to push through clouds with bellies full of rain. "What year is it?"

"2017, we're in February," the Doctor replied; leaning on the blue police box doors. "What do you mean, _a bit different_?"

"Well..." Clara trailed off, her eyes landing on the Doctor as she studied his grey hair that formed soft curls and his unruly eyebrows that looked like silver caterpillars above his eyes. "I thought you had, um, brown hair?"

"Who told you that?" he questioned.

Clara didn't reply to him; she didn't want to mention Rose Tyler just yet. "How do you know me? Not me but the Clara from this universe?"

"Tell me how you got here and I'll tell you," the Doctor raised his caterpillar brows; a motion that evoked a deal.

Her big brown eyes met his washed-out green that reminded her of the northern countryside in the early hours of the morning when the hills were still coated in the dawn fog. She had no idea if this Doctor knew Rose Tyler or what had happened in her universe. She had learnt from Rose and the Torchwood database that the Doctor can change every cell in his body; changing faces instead of dying. It's just that Clara didn't know if the man in front of her was ahead or behind the timeline that she knew.

_There was only one way to find out..._

"I kinda snuck into Torchwood and tried the Dimension Cannon without permission," her words were weary but she delivered them with a grin.

"Did you just say Dimension Cannon?" it was the Doctor's turn at realisations.

"Yeah, do you know about it?" Clara countered with innocence; _he was a future Doctor._

"It was a long time ago..." he faded out; Clara could spot mild worry mixed with exquisite curiosity in his eyes.

She wanted to delve deeper about where in his timeline Rose was but something else played at her mind, "So, how do you know me? The Clara from this universe?"

"She travels with me whenever she isn't busy teaching small people," the Doctor took a step out the TARDIS doorway and onto the lane. "We used to travel a lot more but I guess you humans age so fast. You are all too worried about shoving as many achievements as possible into those fleeting few years that make up your twenties. You are all obsessed with thinking that those ten years are the best of your life. You are all obsessed with getting a full-time job and a house deposit and a partner to spend your life with. None of you realises that all of that is meaningless in the scheme of things. Nowadays Clara prefers quiet nights in with a book and some wine instead of an adventure on an alien planet. I just don't get it."

"I'm a companion?" she asked with slight awe.

The Doctor looked at her quizzically, "no, not you. My Clara is, though." He then paused for a second, eyes watching his black boots creating ripples in tiny puddles with every step. "Can I ask how you know about me?"

"I'm doing an assignment on you. Well, not you in particular but you are part of it," Clara confessed before pulling out a notepad from her jacket pocket that contained pages and pages of notes and facts about her never-ending essay. "It's about the Impossible Girl."

The Doctor looked up at her; a smile played on his lips, "The Impossible Girl? It has been a while since I heard that."

"I thought it was a good title for Rose since I honestly thought that all the theories about her were truly impossible. I guess I was proved wrong, so very wrong."

That was when the Doctor's smile faded.

"Rose? Rose Tyler?"

"Yeah, she's my impossible girl," Clara nodded.

Across from her, she watched the Time Lord take one deep breath; an attempt to collect his thoughts, "I think we need to take a walk."

The Doctor led her out of the forgotten lane where the TARDIS was tucked away in and although he didn't specify where the end destination was or why they were walking, Clara couldn't help but follow.

He led her through the winding streets of Soho which were almost tame beyond recognition in the early hours of the morning. They passed people who were on their way to work or meet with friends or just traversing the narrow streets. No one looked at either of them; no one looked at anyone this close to the city centre.

That was the beautiful thing about London, especially central London; you were invisible to everyone but yourself.

They walked out of Soho onto Shaftesbury Avenue which even in the early hours was already filling to the brim with life. Taxi's honked loudly at unassuming tourists still unsure if they were meant to look left or right when crossing the road (even though many streets had what direction to look written in large white letters) and street vendors had already begun their attempt to lure oblivious people into buying 'half-price theatre tickets' which were definitely not all legitimate.

Even in another universe, London was still the same city.

Clara was getting worried about the Doctor not talking by the time they crossed Leicester Square and fell into the congested sidewalk of Charing Cross.

It wasn't until they broke away from the monotonous morning commuters making their way to their office jobs and ended up in Trafalgar Square that the Doctor decided to talk.

"I love it here, right here on the National Gallery steps," the Doctor told her, his words were light and airy as he found a spot partway down the steps. "It's just postcard-perfect here with Trafalgar Square and Whitehall and Big Ben in the distance. If you go down to the traffic lights over there you can even see the London Eye. So many iconic things packed into such a tiny portion of the world."

"You didn't take me here to tell me about a good photo opportunity," Clara responded before sitting down on the steps. The Doctor followed suit.

"I needed to think," he admitted. "Sometimes I go sit with some monks for a few weeks or go watch stars die in the far corners of space. I didn't want to leave you alone in this world so walking is the next best thing."

"What were you thinking about?"

"The odds that you, Clara Oswald, would run into Rose Tyler in a completely different universe is, well, even the TARDIS would struggle to try to find enough digits for those odds," the Doctor reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the silver and metal thing again and pointed it at Clara.

"What are you doing?"

"Scanning you with my Sonic Screwdriver," he told her as the slender thing began to _vreeeee, _"I'm trying to see just where in the timeline you come from."

"2008," Clara chuckled, "you don't need to scan me, I can tell you what you want to know."

"Can you tell me just how you got here?" It has been a very long time since all this happened and I don't remember you being a part of it," the Doctor's eyes lingered on the screwdriver before he turned it off and focused his attention back on her.

"I told you, I snuck into Torchwood. Rose gave me the keycard last week and I wanted to test out a new algorithm that my friend had been working on," Clara smiled, "I guess it worked because I found you, just not the right you."

"No, not the right me," he sighed, "how close is Rose to finding this universe again?"

Clara thought for a moment. Rose had told her she had hoped to establish a connection by New Years but now with her slightly most likely illegal intervention, she might be back in this London a lot sooner. "I'm guessing very close since the algorithm worked, although I guess it is uncertain. I learnt early on in this crazy adventure that impossible doesn't exist but boy oh boy, uncertainties sure do."

She watched as the Doctor turned away to look at the square instead of her. Even though he evaded eye contact, Clara still spotted the moment where pain flashed across his aged features.

"How long has it been for you, Doctor?"

"How long?" He asked for clarification.

"How long since Rose Tyler?"

"She thought I was old at 900, I thought I was old too. Now I look back and realise that is nothing in the lifespan of a Time Lord; I was just a child."

"What are you now?" Clara asked, not sure if she really wanted to get her head wrapped around the ability to have such a lengthy lifespan; she still couldn't grasp Jack's lengthy life.

"Too old," The Doctor sighed, "I'm too old but I have nothing but time on my hands."

In his hands, the sonic screwdriver made a shrill noise and the Doctor lifted it to eye level.

"What is it?" Clara asked, not even attempting to ask him how he read that thing.

"I believe it is time to part ways, there is a spatial anomaly forming around you."

Clara let a groan escape her, "They've either been busted by the Torchwood team or the Cannon has a short lifespan. Can I ask you one last thing?"

"Make it quick Miss Oswald," the Doctor smiled, "You'll be fading before my eyes shortly."

"What happens with you and Rose? She must return, you wouldn't have known about the Cannon any other way."

He let the question linger between them for several moments before responding, "spoilers."

Just after the word left his lips the Doctor with his silver curls and caterpillar brows, Trafalgar Square and the pale morning light that coated the other London faded from around her.

The next thing she saw was blonde hair, a navy coloured jacket and two stunned faces.

"Are you okay?" Jack's voice welcomed her back.

"Is that what you are going to ask her?" Rose's heated voice cut over his. "She used Torchwood technology without permission out of work hours by herself and you ask if she's okay?"

"I'm okay, you don't have to be concerned," Clara responded. "I had Danny and Amelia over here looking after me.

"You could have gotten stuck!" Rose let exasperation taint her words, "You could have been nothing but atoms between the fabric of space and time if even a single equation was wrong in Danny's work! Even worse, you could have made the Universe start to collapse or completely ruin the Dimension Cannon."

"But she didn't," Jack countered.

"You're right, I didn't," a grin lit up Clara's face. "I did a lot better than that."

"Where did you go?"Rose asked through tight lips.

"I went to your universe, Rose. I went to your universe and met the Doctor."


	22. The Darkness

Outside snow fell onto busy streets filled with busy people who didn't give a damn about the world around them. Winter had come to London and snow powdered the congested streets a lot earlier in the season than normal.

The weather reports blamed climate change for the early cold snap although it was actually Torchwood's fault; Jack didn't read the instructions properly on a weather machine that the team had been developing and created heavy snowfall instead of blue skies.

Clara was sitting in a restaurant that overlooked Leicester Square; a menu idly sat in her hands. She was waiting for the others to arrive and they were already fifteen minutes late; she could feel the waitress' eyes bore into the back of her head, waiting for her to order.

Ten more minutes passed before Clara Oswald stopped being alone.

"Sorry about our tardiness," Jack's American accent cut through her silence, "the Northern line had terrible delays."

"It's all this bloody snow, this city wasn't prepared for a cold snap so soon," Rose lightly scolded from beside him.

"So you're blaming me for us being late?" Jack gasped as he sat down across from Clara.

"Well, you did make the snow," Rose responded, her words becoming hush when the waitress who had been eyeing out Clara came over and hastily gave the other two their menus.

It had been a week since Clara's escapade in the other dimension and it had been a week since she had contact with the Torchwood team. Sneaking into their HQ in Canary Wharf hadn't exactly had a good impact on their friendship last Sunday.

"I didn't mind waiting," Clara told the two, "I was slightly late too, it wasn't exactly a smart idea to take the bus."

The waitress came over to them again dropping down three glasses and a pitcher of water; you could tell she just wanted something to do, the snow had driven most customers away.

"Have you finished it yet?" Rose directed her question to Clara as she filled the glasses up with water.

"I'm just proofreading now; cutting a sentence here, adding a diagram there. Just final touches," Clara smiled. After months of discovery and endless typing, she had finally reached the end of her investigation. "What about you?"

"Good and bad news," Jack grimaced before taking a sip of water.

"Bad news?"

Rose frowned, "It's not tragically bad but yeah, some bad news."

"So which one do you want first?" Jack finished off, a devilish smile playing on his lips.

"Give me the good news," Clara admitted. Usually, she liked getting the bad news first but when it came to Torchwood, the bad news was usually catastrophic and she wasn't mentally prepared for that just yet.

"Well," Rose began, "thanks to Danny's amazing mathematical work, we have been able to establish a solid connection with my universe. Molly has been absolutely brilliant and pinpointed a range of timelines that contain the Doctor. My Doctor," she clarified."

Jack took over, "although I don't exactly think that your adventure across dimensions was smart, it did help us out. A lot."

"What's the bad news?" Clara asked, not being able to see any flaws.

"Your algorithm also backfired in a way not even the best at Torchwood could have predicted," Jack's words were heavy. "Have you looked up at the night sky lately?

"No, your snowstorm kinda blocks it out," Clara tried to joke but the deadpan stares she received from Jack and Rose quickly shut down her chuckles.

Rose leant slightly across the table so her almost whispers could be heard, "we thought it was just our systems malfunctioning and then we got reports from astronomy departments across the globe; all reporting that the sky is losing stars."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean Clara is that this universe is dying. One by one the stars are being snuffed out like candlelight and there is no one who can stop it."

Clara frowned, "what has this got to do with Danny's algorithm?"

"Everything," Jack countered. "We did a few more jumps earlier in the week into Rose's universe which seemed to accelerate the decomposition. The stars began to disappear not just from our universe but from every universe we jumped to. Even the void has begun to die; the darkness is consuming everything."

"What does this mean?"

"It means that the whole of reality, everything we know and don't know is dying; something is destroying it," Rose stopped when the waitress came to their table.

"Are you ready to order?"

"Five more minutes, please," Rose smiled at the girl who didn't look too pleased with the three of them who didn't seem to be in a rush to get anywhere.

When the waitress was out of earshot, Jack picked up where Rose left off, "every single dimension is folding upon each other and we need the Doctor to fix it."

"You said you have a connection to the Doctor? Can you still get to him even if the void is dying?" Clara asked.

"Yes," Rose's reply was hesitant. "we have been able to pinpoint the timeline that is chronologically identical to my own except something is odd about it."

"Odd?"

"His current companion, Donna Noble, is a peculiarity."

"What she means," Jack cut in, "is that all the timelines in her universe converge on Donna Noble, we can't see far into the future; they all end in a blur."

"That's not even the fun part," Rose let the slightest smile creep onto her lips. Even if the whole of reality was collapsing before her eyes, she couldn't help but be excited at oddities. "Somehow, Donna Noble has been able to form an alternate universe around her. It's blocking the Dimension Cannon from getting back to my universe. I've ended up in her alternate timeline twice. Mind you, the first time I didn't even realise I was in a different dimension altogether."

"So what are you going to do with the alternate universe and how are you going to stop reality from killing itself?" Clara asked.

"We've been able to locate where Donna's universe began and we have to make her change the decision that created the whole dimension. It's a silly little thing, an action that none of us would think about twice, let alone an action that seemed important enough to create a different dimension," this time, Rose couldn't help hide her smile. "We need to work out how to make her turn left instead of right at an intersection."

"The little things in life," Clara mused. "What about fixing the whole end of time thing?"

Rose shrugged, "I'm going to find the Doctor once we can get past Donna's universe. He would know how to fix it, that man can fix everything."

"What if he can't?"

"That's why we're having this nice lunch," Jack interjected. "Who knows, we might not see Rose for a while or ever again."

"Don't be so pessimistic," Rose rolled her eyes. "I'll be back. Once we figure out how to bring reality back to life and stabilise the cannon, we'll be able to dimension jump freely. The Doctor once told me of what life was like before the time war when Time Lords could jump freely between dimensions as if it was just the same as travelling through time and space."

"What happens if the stars don't stop going out?" Clara couldn't help but ask. She was excited of the possibility of Rose's story getting a happy ending but the factor of reality dying before their eyes wasn't exactly the most heartwarming addition to the narrative.

"That isn't going to happen," Rose corrected her, "The Doctor wouldn't let that happen."

"I hope you're right," Clara forced a smile.

"Now I don't know about you two, but all this Torchwood talk has made me famished, do you think the pie will be a big enough meal?" Jack asked the girls, pulling them out of the darkened conversation and into the more light-heartened topic of lunch.

* * *

Clara Oswald was back in her dorm staring at the harsh white light of a computer screen.

The word count had been met twice over; 21,287 words to be exact. 102 pages including diagrams and impeccable setting out.

She had finished the investigation of the impossible girl from another universe who fell in love with a nine hundred-year-old alien. She had found the girl; Rose Tyler, the Bad Wolf, in Cardiff and fallen into the mysterious life of Torchwood. She had seen the impossible become possible and jumped dimensions twice. She had met the man Rose Tyler had fallen in love with except he had a different face and Rose was just a faraway memory for him.

In the last few months, Clara had stumbled upon a way of life she could never have thought about and a story she could never have fathomed.

She had reached her conclusion both in her essay and in reality; Rose had found a way back to the Doctor. Happy endings do exist even if that did include the whole of reality on the brink of death.

"You know," Amelia's voice broke the silence in the room, "even though it's macabre, I wouldn't mind using the darkness as a plot device in my next fiction."

"I didn't realise you liked writing sci-fi," Clara told her. She broke her gaze from the computer screen to look at Amelia curled up under her duvet, languidly writing in a notebook.

"These last few months have made me appreciate the genre a bit more," Amelia admitted. "How long do you think until the world catches on that the darkness is actually reality destroying itself?"

"Hopefully they don't," Clara looked back at her essay. She had been careful to omit any evidence that they were partly responsible for the collapse of reality. "Rose and the Doctor will fix it before humanity catches on."

"I wonder what Rose is doing now..."

"Probably in Donna's universe trying to pull it apart."

"Just your normal Sunday afternoon activity," Amelia chuckled. "I still can't believe that in Rose's universe, you are a companion. Fate is such a funny thing."

Clara smirked, "Who knows, fate might be even weirder. I mean, you could possibly be the Doctor's companion too. It's not impossible."

"Me?" Amelia fought back a snort, "oh I don't think so, what good would I be as a companion?"

"Don't doubt yourself," Clara grinned, "I somehow became one."

Amelia rolled her eyes, "are you busy next Saturday?"

"No. Why?"

"Do you want to go to a Christmas party?"

Clara sighed. She had escaped the Halloween party, there was no escaping this one, "sure thing, A. I'll go if we still exist next week."

Her words came across a bit more unsure than intended.

'Don't worry C," she replied. "If anyone can save the day it is Rose Tyler. There is no way the universe can be so cruel and cease existing before Christmas."

"What happens if it waits until Boxing Day?"

Amelia laughed, "as long as I get Christmas. But seriously, we'll get through this. The stars will be returned and reality will reassert itself, we just gotta have a little faith in Rose."

Clara let a smile creep onto her lips although it was tainted with doubt, "I'm counting on my lucky stars that you're right."


	23. An Early Winter Morning in Hampstead Heath

The stars never disappeared.

Every night Clara turned her head to the sky and counted the stars she could see through breaks in the blanket of clouds. Each night she counted twenty-four stars which was surprisingly good for the fact that London was covered in not only an artificial snowstorm but also smog and light pollution.

Those twenty-four stars lingered in the sky each night as tiny pricks of light upon a cloak of black. It could only be taken as a positive sign; Death hadn't extended its pernicious hands towards Earth and as long as the stars danced about their heads, the virulent touch of cessation would not reach the blue and green planet that she called home.

She was still alive which meant Rose Tyler had found success; she had found her Doctor after too long apart.

On this particular night, the snow clouds had parted, allowing the blanket of stars to dimly light the December night. Snow still lingered within London, the sidewalks were slick with old grey snow which slowly bled into puddles. Even though the sky above was clear, the world below it was damp and chilly.

Clara was hand in hand with Amelia Pond, walking through deserted streets of slick asphalt roads which reflected Christmas lights strung from building to building. They had ditched the end of semester Christmas party that Amelia had forced upon Clara in the early hours of the morning in favour of walking along the streets of London.

"Did you see the blonde that was trying to get with Rory?" Amelia giggled, her step wavering as a stiletto slipped between a crack in the road.

"Why didn't you intervene?" Clara asked, leaning into Amelia so she wouldn't fall.

"It was pretty funny, seeing him try to escape," Amelia shrugged; a grin evident on her ruby red lips.

"You're a terrible girlfriend," Clara giggled in response.

"He handled it very well," pride coated her words, "Rory is a smart guy. He knows what he is giving up if he decided to do such a thing... oi C, where even are we?"

Although alcohol still coursed through her veins, inebriating her senses and making the world around her a lot less precise, Clara was sobering up enough to answer Amelia's question. "Hampstead. If we keep walking straight we should hit the high street and then we could take either the Northern Line or the Overground back into the city."

"Nah, too much effort," Amelia sighed. "What about Hampstead Heath? That shouldn't be too far from here."

"It's 5AM in the morning and you want to go to a park that's not well lit?"

"That isn't a no," Amelia smiled and tugged at Clara's hand; pulling her in the direction of the Hampstead Heath Overground station where they had gotten off at earlier in the evening.

"I'm blaming you if we get murdered," Clara muttered. "Or lost for that matter, the heath is massive!"

"You'll thank me when the sun rises," Amelia countered.

"That isn't gonna happen for another few hours," Clara sighed; she knew when she was defeated, especially when Amelia was involved.

"Stop being so negative. You can visit multiple universes but you're scared of a dark park?" Amelia giggled. "The only scary thing we'll run into is those insane morning joggers who insist on their morning run before work even if it is minus two and snow won't budge from the ground. Anyway, we'll probably be the scary ones. Imagine what we look like to them; two students dressed up as Mrs Claus wrapped up in their warmest coats. We probably look tragic to anyone who notices us."

"Thanks for stealing my costume, by the way," Clara feigned a bitchy tone.

Amelia winked, "Tell that to the twenty other girls tonight who also dressed up as a sexy Mrs Claus."

They both fell into silence then as they passed the overground station; its fluorescent lights washed the darkness of the night off them even if it was only for a few moments before they fell back into the raven cloak of the early morning night.

It was hard to miss Hampstead Heath; a chunk of green amongst a snarling city of grey. They skirted the edge for a while until Amelia pulled Clara into the maze of interconnected dirt paths.

"When was the last time you came out here?" Amelia asked as the two walked along a path rimmed with slick ice; their steps were cautious as neither wanted to end their night on their bum.

"Not since I was a kid. Mum and Dad used to bring me here every weekend up until I was about eleven," Clara smiled at the memories associated with the heath. She would often spend her Saturday afternoons flying kites with her father, chasing after all the dogs that ran loose or just sit with her parents watching the people of London go about their business around them.

"I thought you grew up in Blackpool?"

"I did although we moved to London for a few years for dad's work," she corrected. "We lived out in Finchley and hated every moment of it. Dad still doesn't understand how I can live in London for uni, especially right in the heart of the city."

"I don't know how we do it. I guess it's more fun in there," Amelia chuckled. "Speaking of uni, how did your submission go?"

Clara shrugged, "I'll have to wait until after holidays for my grade but O'Leary sounded promising. Imagine A, if this goes well I could be published in journals."

"You don't sound too certain about that," Amelia picked up on the uneasiness in her words.

"How many scientists, journalists and just people in general, will believe in what I wrote? I mean, half this planet is in denial that the Lyran invasion even happened!" A sigh of frustration left Clara's lips.

"They're just stupid. Don't worry, people will come around eventually. I mean, look at all the people who thought Charles Darwin was full of shit," Amelia pointed out. "In the end he was right and they were wrong. You may get people disputing your claims about the multiverse but just you wait, they'll be proven wrong. Who knows, Rose might have been able to stabilise those dimension jumps you were telling me about, she might be able to come back and prove you aren't just writing bollocks!"

"If worse comes to worse, at least I'll get a good grade. I think Rose threatened O'Leary into making me not fail, even if my essay is a bit too out there," Clara grinned at the memory.

"You'll get the top mark," Amelia assured. "How could you not? You went above and beyond to write that essay."

"Sometimes we went too far beyond," she chuckled. "We could have been screwed over for breaking into Torchwood."

"That was mostly a success," Amelia countered, "we found the right Universe, we just got the wrong Doctor."

Clara giggled, alcohol always lubricated her tongue, "and we kind of broke the fabric of time and space and almost destroyed everything in existence."

"But we didn't," Amelia wagged an index finger in front of her face, "that's the important part, C. We almost destroyed an infinite amount of dimensions but we didn't; the darkness vanished."

Clara grinned before placing her hands on her nose and blowing into them; an attempt to warm up her numb nose.

"What do you think will happen with us and Torchwood now that the mystery of the impossible girl is solved?" Amelia asked as she tucked an errant strand of her flaming hair behind her right ear.

"I honestly don't know," Clara replied with uncertainty. "It's not like we're of any use to them."

"You should ask them for a job," Amelia nudged her gently on her side. "I mean, it's hard to break into the journalism world these days and a job with Torchwood would be anything but boring."

"I'm not smart enough," she pushed the idea away, "I'm good at writing what happens around me, not figuring out how the world works. Although Danny might be able to put his math skills to good use at Torchwood."

"Don't pass up on it," Amelia insisted, "You already have the hands-on experience. Just remember that Rose was just an estate girl who got lucky and ended up pretty much running her own section of Torchwood."

Clara sighed, "you're right."

"I'm Amelia Pond. I was born being right," she chuckled.

Changing the subject, Clara asked, "why did you want to come up here to Hampstead Heath instead of going back home to a nice warm shower and bed?"

"We'll do that soon enough," she assured. "When I moved down from Scotland I didn't have many friends. I guess that was my fault, I ended up getting into so many fights with the girls in my class. Well, I lived in Highgate for my first year down here and sometimes I would come up here to Parliament Hill and watch the sunrise or set, it would depend on if I slept in and missed the sunrise. It's beautiful up here watching the sun sink below the earth or climb free of its grasp. You can see so much of the city up here, I guess I would call it beautiful in a concrete jungle kind of way."

"I've never watched the sunrise from up here," Clara admitted.

Amelia smirked, "That's why I dragged you here. I don't care if Hampstead Heath is blanketed in snow and ice or this winter morning is terribly chilly. I wanted you to experience a sunrise."

"We could have watched the sunrise closer to home," Clara pointed out; a smirk played on her lips. "I've heard it's beautiful down on the Thames at this time of the morning."

"Well, we're here now," Amelia sighed. "I was trying to give you a beautiful end to this chapter of your life and a beautiful start to a new beginning."

"I don't think it's the end," Clara countered. "No, it definitely isn't. I might have handed in my essay and the darkness may have ceased but it isn't the end just yet. I need to find out if Rose and the Doctor found each other again. At the moment I am only guessing that they are; it's the most plausible reason for us being here instead of being wiped out of existence. Until I see Rose again, which may happen tomorrow or in twenty years from now, I won't say that this part of my life is over."

Amelia smiled, "you like having definitive answers, don't ya, C?"

She shrugged, "I guess that's why I became a journalist, I like knowing the answers."

The two girls - dressed up in red dresses much too short for the season, covered in long coats which even though were warm, didn't keep them immune to the cold - fell into a comfortable silence as they walked through Hampstead Heath. They passed only a few ludicrous joggers whose breaths billowed around them in warm fog and several silent dog walkers wrapped up in layers of clothes in an effort to defeat the subzero temperature.

Amelia led Clara up to the top of Parliament Hill; their footsteps were more steady the closer to sunrise they got. Even though the sun was still an hour away from peaking its amber head over the horizon, the sky was already beginning to sheath its sable cloak. The iridescent stars that shone above them gave way to periwinkle hues and gradually the skyline of London began to carve itself against the gradually lightened sky.

They found a seat at the lookout with the city of London running across the horizon in front of them and zeppelins flying above the few skyscrapers. Clara let her head fall against Amelia's shoulder. The weight of the last few months had fallen off her shoulders, and the effects of sobering up and lack of sleep had crept up on the girl as she sat on a wooden bench that was just a bit too cold to be comfortable.

In the early winter morning in Hampstead Heath, Clara Oswald let her eyes close and the hands of sleep reach out to pull her into unconsciousness while beside her, Amelia watched daylight come alive and wash away the darkness that plagued London for too many hours per day during winter.

For the first time since Amelia dragged her to the Maths department and introduced her to Danny Pink, who had a crazy theory about an impossible girl, Clara Oswald's dreams were devoid of worry or ideas about the universe.

Clara's dreams were silent and peaceful for the first time since becoming involved with the impossible as she sat beside Amelia Pond in the winter morning in Hampstead Heath.


	24. Epilogue - Under the Same Stars

Rose Tyler held Clara's investigation between her hands. The thick pages were heavy with the story of her life from the last several years:

** _The Girl Who Leapt Through Time_ **   
_by Clara Oswald_

Her ordinary life turned extraordinary fit into just over 102 pages and she didn't know how to feel about that.

Three months had passed since saving all of time and space from the Daleks and the void. It had been three excruciating months since she had returned to Pete's world against her choice.

She had reached her goal only for it to be torn from her grasp; she was back at square one.

"What did ya think?" Clara Oswald questioned from across the table.

The two of them were in Torchwood's headquarters in Canary Wharf, sitting in the office Rose never wanted to see again yet couldn't escape from.

"This Bad Wolf girl," Rose smirked, "she sounds stubborn and tough."

"You _are_ stubborn," Clara mimicked Rose's smirk.

Rose placed the investigation onto the timber desk that separated them, "are you liking your internship here?"

"I'm hoping Jack likes me enough to keep me on full time once I graduate. I don't think I could go and be something normal after what I experienced," Clara reached out to grab the copy of her investigation. "What about you, what's it like getting back into the swing of things?"

Rose didn't reply straight away. The truth was that she hated coming back to Torchwood after what had happened and now that the void had been healed and reality had reasserted itself, Rose couldn't even begin to find a way to escape.

"I'm doing great," she told the brunette through a false smile.

"And that's a load of bollocks," Clara rolled her eyes. "You barely leave this room, I hardly see you unless I remind myself to come in here."

Rose shrugged, "no one needs saving now, I just don't have any work."

"Okay then, what about you and John? Everyone seems pretty tight-lipped about you two," Clara was uneasy with her words, she didn't know if it was the right time for her inquisitive side to kick in.

Rose's lips fell into a tight line. The meta-crisis Doctor – or John Smith as he now liked to be known as - had been a thorn in her side ever since returning to Pete's World. Even after three months, she did not know how to take him.

Back in Bad Wolf Bay, he had told her the three words that the Doctor had always been in fear of saying but after that their relationship fell into hibernation. On their journey from Oslo to London, Rose almost forgot that the meta-crisis wasn't the Doctor; they fell into a comfortable conversation from the get-go, it felt just like old time.

He was the time lord in every single way yet at the same time he wasn't the Doctor at all.

The meta-crisis was human thanks to Donna Noble's intervention which made him capable of giving his one mortal heart to Rose; a gesture the Doctor could never do. It was just that Rose Tyler didn't know if she wanted to love the meta-crisis even though her heart already did; he was John Smith, the hybrid created amid battle, not The Doctor from Gallifrey who could change his face with golden light.

Time and time again over the last three months, John had shown Rose that he was the man she once knew just stuck in a human body; she was slowly growing used to the idea but she wasn't there yet.

John Smith wasn't the Doctor and she was never going to see the time lord again.

Rose Tyler just didn't know how to accept the obvious just yet.

"Let me show you something," Rose replied to Clara's question with a statement. She stood up and headed towards her office door and Clara quickly followed. "John and I were given something and I feel like you should see it."

"Is that a smile I'm seeing?" Clara mocked a gasp.

"You'll be smiling too in a moment," Rose let her smile settle on her lips. She took Clara down the hallways, away from the wing where the Cardiff team set up camp in the London offices, and let her to an unassuming door simply labelled _'botany'._ "I must admit, these last few months have been difficult for me. It has been hard to accept the reality of everything although there is something positive that came out of it all."

"And that thing is a plant?" Clara questioned, scepticism laced her words.

"Yes. No. Not exactly, it's a bit difficult to explain without seeing it," Rose admitted before opening the door.

Behind the unassuming ash grey door was a room where humid warmth licked at their skin and dim yellow lights softened everything around them.

Standing in the middle of the room was John Smith and even after three months, his hair was fluffier than ever and he still refused to discard the blue suit.

Rose didn't admit verbally but she liked him in blue.

"Good morning Clara, good morning Rose," John greeted, giving the two a casual wave.

Next to him, bathing in the yellow lights of the Botany room was a misshapen piece of coral sitting on top of a sterile silver table.

"What's that?" Clara asked, walking ahead of Rose to stand next to John, "why does it need the lights?"

"It's growing," John replied with a grin.

"It's a TARDIS coral," Rose added. "The Doctor gave it to us back on Bad Wolf Bay. Usually, it takes thousands of years for a coral to mature but if we..." she trailed off, the time lord lingo had blown right over her head.

"Shatterfry the plasmic shell and modify the dimensional stabilizer to a fall back harmonic thirty six point three, we can accelerate the growth power by 59," John finished, his grin growing wider when noticing the bewilderment on Clara's face. "To put it simply, this little chunk of coral could be a TARDIS within four years."

Clara's brown eyes grew wide in amazement, "oh my stars, that's brilliant."

"It is," John echoed. "We'll be able to explore the universe in our TARDIS; Rose Tyler and John Smith. Although by then I'm hoping that Rose will let me have her last name. _Smith _just doesn't seem fitting and I quite like the way _John Tyler_ rolls off my tongue."

"One step at a time," Rose smirked, brushing away the comment although her cheeks couldn't help but flush a shade of red.

"Will it look like a police box?" Clara asked, bending down slightly so she could get a better look at the coral.

"The chameleon circuit was broken in the other TARDIS but this one should be able to blend into her environment," John answered. "Pretty cool isn't it?"

"We were hoping that you would want to join us once she's grown?" Rose asked. "I know it won't be for a few years but it just feels right having you alone. Same with Amelia, Rory and I guess even Jack. You were all companions back in my universe so it would be fun to live the life the other version of you got to have."

Clara grinned, "that's a brilliant idea."

"So where would you like to go first? We've already decided on Barcelona," John told her. "I have promised to take Rose there since the face I had before this one so I think it's about time we go visit the planet with dogs that have no noses."

"Barcelona's a planet?" Clara couldn't help but chuckle, "out of all the names in the universe, there is a planet called Barcelona?"

"Pretty much anything is possible, it's an immensely big universe out there," Rose reached down to gently touch the coral. "So, once this grows where will you want to explore first? The beginning of time and space or maybe the end when it is cold and sparse? What about the system where every planet is bioluminescent or the planet where the ocean is made of diamonds?"

Clara thought for a moment before responding, "I was thinking of something a bit more closer to home like the early 1800s in Hampshire, England? I've always wanted to meet Jane Austen."


End file.
